[X] My Assistant

[vikingmars]

My dream would be the SSI seeing the built-up of heavy patches of frost around Phoenix during the autumn before her winter shut-off...
... with some gathering of meteorological data as well !
I was impressed to see how quick the energy available will drop before the autumn equinox
(see link : http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...t&p=116809)

Knowing that the Robotic Arm (RA) is strong enough to lift the lander, why not using it as an Xtra leg to tilt her to gain Xtra sunlight on its solar panels and, thus, some Xtra weeks of imaging and meteo activities ?
Rationale :
- Anyway Phoenix will die from cold : no survability is expected after winter ;
- After an extensive use for trenching, the RA will thus no longer be useful, except from being parked ;
- could the RA be parked in any position ?
- Luckily the RA is almost facing north...
Then, why not using it to push firmly on the Martian surface to tilt the Lander towards the south, to help her solar panels receive Xtra weeks of sunlight ?

==> Tilting Phoenix with the RA for Xtra weeks of activities : a feasible dream ?
What are the opinions of our s/c hardware specialists ? Was it discussed before ?
(...and, please help, help MarsEngineer ! )

[tasp]

Surprising amount of interest has been shown here for imaging 'snow' drifts in the Martian boreal realm.

Perhaps a future mission someday might be designed with an extra battery that would be fully charged during Martian summer and then electrically isolated from the rest of the craft, and then with a low power timer circuit, perhaps the battery could be connected to the spacecraft power bus for 1 hour every 30 days or so to take a single image and uplink it to earth or an appropriate Mars orbiter. One might size the battery to the projected winter duration, and time the photos for when the sun is at it's highest point on the days selected. Seems like a white 'snow' field might be photographable with the sun several degrees below the horizon with the high sensitivity cameras we have now. The winter battery might be further justifiable as part of a secondary back up power system for a more robust craft in any regard.

Having a craft with a 'caretaker' mode for winter conditions on Mars might be a pretty good PR tool that would generate scientifically interesting data too.

[MahFL]

Surprising amount of interest has been shown here for imaging 'snow' drifts in the Martian boreal realm.

Perhaps a future mission someday might be designed with an extra battery...

That's like sending half of another lander to Mars, there will be extra weight, complexity, and of course cost involved. They could could not even afford to double the flash memory, let alone carry a heavy extra long life battery.