What did you expect?, The day they landed, what did you expect the MERs to achieve? Options

[Stephen]

Squyres is on record saying that he thought, 120 - 140...maybe 180.

Personally - I was thinking 180, twice the life of Pathfinder just about.

900....don't be so stupid.



Doug

In one sense the MERs have still not surpassed the Sojourner part of Pathfinder (although they're now very close).

Pathfinder's little rover was only supposed to last a week but ended up lasting as long as the base station: 83 sols. That's nearly twelve times longer than it's projected lifetime.

Spirit & Opportunity won't surpass that milestone until (by my calculations) around about Sol 1068.

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Stephen

[climber]

Talking about longevity, I wonder for how long were disigned the "stuff" used only once. I mainly think of what was used to deploy the rovers... the "Origami devices". Were they only pyros or were there some motors to deploy solar panels wings, weels? Side question is : is there some unused devices that can still operate? Would have been good to stow Spirit's right front weel for exemple or to shake the solar panel (if the dust didn't stick).

[djellison]

There were motors to open the petals of the landers, and the solar arrays. The ones for the petals were used multiple times, to try and shuffle airbags around with Spirit, and to make the egress a little easier for Opportunity.

The solar array motors, I'm not sure. I wouldn't want to use them to 'shake' dust off...the potential for damage is huge. They may even be totally broken, or unuseable at the moment.

BUT

If I could guarentee them working the other way in a few months time (which is an impossible thing) , I might be tempted to drive solar array motors just 10 degrees or so if the geometry means it would help the power issue.

The front wheel deployment 'clicked' into place iirc, and so couldn't be 'un' driven as I understand it.

Doug

[remcook]

To be honest, I didn't really have expectations, just hopes. Hopes that they would work and they would do well. Seeing the first shots were just marvelous and everything after almost a bonus. But now they have done better than I even hoped and with this forum in place the whole 'MER experience' is just far better than I could have imagined. Bless the internet (and Doug of course)!
These days I almost take the rovers for granted, but sometimes stop and think how cool this all is
May the rovers live on and on and on and on and on

[climber]

There were motors to open the petals of the landers, and the solar arrays. The ones for the petals were used multiple times, to try and shuffle airbags around with Spirit, and to make the egress a little easier for Opportunity.

Oh yes, I remember that

The solar array motors, I'm not sure. I wouldn't want to use them to 'shake' dust off...the potential for damage is huge. They may even be totally broken, or unuseable at the moment.
BUT
If I could guarentee them working the other way in a few months time (which is an impossible thing) , I might be tempted to drive solar array motors just 10 degrees or so if the geometry means it would help the power issue.

Yes, in all case this would be a trade between risks & benefit. Just currious is they are still in working order since so many thing happen that were though impossible.

The front wheel deployment 'clicked' into place iirc, and so couldn't be 'un' driven as I understand it.
Doug

That was definitely the safest way to do things and I wonder if it could be a solution for MSL to "fix" this by allowing this capabilty. I remember of such a discution 3 months ago about how to fix Spirit stucked weel but I don't remember seing this "solution" be proposed.

[ljk4-1]

Have they determined how "sticky" Martian dust is?

Is it more or less so than lunar dust?

This information may determine whether tipping the rovers any would
make a difference or not in terms of getting rid of dust.