Dust Storm- Opportunity EOM, the end of the beginning of a new era in robotic spaceflight |
Dust Storm- Opportunity EOM, the end of the beginning of a new era in robotic spaceflight |
Dec 13 2018, 02:50 PM
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#331
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Member Group: Members Posts: 282 Joined: 18-June 04 Member No.: 84 |
That article says pretty much the same as the one from the Planetary Society, however this tweet from systems engineer that came a few days later is less optimistic now https://twitter.com/AstroStaab/status/1072216372849954816 |
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Dec 14 2018, 01:14 AM
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#332
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Member Group: Admin Posts: 976 Joined: 29-September 06 From: Pasadena, CA - USA Member No.: 1200 |
My take is that the likelyhood of Oppy waking up increases as time goes by until end of January 2019 then it drops quite rapidly. The idea being that between Ls 290 and Ls 310 we have seen cleaning events. As it stands Oppy likely needs more than one cleaning event to regain consciousness. Once the windy season is over Winter will get the vehicle too cold to survive. This is *my* take, not an official position of my employer, yadda yadda yadda.
Paolo -------------------- Disclaimer: all opinions, ideas and information included here are my own,and should not be intended to represent opinion or policy of my employer.
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Dec 14 2018, 03:10 AM
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#333
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Member Group: Members Posts: 691 Joined: 21-December 07 From: Clatskanie, Oregon Member No.: 3988 |
I have a question for you Paolo. I am trying to get an idea of what the final physical state of what the rover was left in. The last hazcam's show that the arm was placed on a target with the APXS in contact and I vaguely recall reading in a planetary society update that it was a team's decision to leave the arm placed on that target during storm prep. I have not been able to locate that again. Was this the case? What was the final position that the camera mast in? I assume it was placed so the cameras were pointed down in such a dust storm situation. I just find it fascinating to know because the final known pose position for any surface mission would be how they would look for millions or even billions of years. It is how they will look like when astronaut's walk up to them.
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Dec 14 2018, 06:55 AM
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#334
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Member Group: Admin Posts: 976 Joined: 29-September 06 From: Pasadena, CA - USA Member No.: 1200 |
Yes, the APXS is down on the target. We didn't have any power to do anything except take the last tau measurement. The PMA is always "stowed" before a shutdown, that is the elevation is at least 17 deg below the horizon. We do not point the PMA straight down in case the elevation actuator stops working you can at least see a bit of terrain in front of the rover while having the cameras pointed down-ish.
Paolo -------------------- Disclaimer: all opinions, ideas and information included here are my own,and should not be intended to represent opinion or policy of my employer.
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Dec 18 2018, 05:24 AM
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#335
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Member Group: Members Posts: 691 Joined: 21-December 07 From: Clatskanie, Oregon Member No.: 3988 |
Thank you for confirming that for me, Paolo.
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Dec 31 2018, 01:59 AM
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#336
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Member Group: Members Posts: 507 Joined: 10-September 08 Member No.: 4338 |
Assuming a clock fault has occurred on Opportunity, what happens to the clock once power is restored? Does it reset to a random time and continue from there? Or does it remain unusable until a reset is commanded from Earth?
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Dec 31 2018, 03:07 AM
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#337
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2511 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
Assuming a clock fault has occurred on Opportunity, what happens to the clock once power is restored? Does it reset to a random time and continue from there? https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/publicati...Drift_final.pdf -- I expect that the Mission Clock would reset to zero if the power dropped below the maintenance level, but I'm not sure. It really doesn't matter for recovery as there are other sol-based timers that will be used. If they recover, resetting the clock should be simple. -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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Jan 6 2019, 06:50 PM
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#338
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Member Group: Members Posts: 507 Joined: 10-September 08 Member No.: 4338 |
As we know, there have been many spurious DSN locks on Opportunity. I assume however that a DSN lock can only occur at a time when an antenna is scheduled for downlink on a mission, i.e., the antenna is actively listening.
Thus, I am puzzled by this, no doubt spurious, lock https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1081774112303919105 which, if I am not mistaken, occurred around 5am local solar time at the Opportunity site. Why would a listening window be scheduled for a time that seems clearly before any "solar groovy" time? A scheduling artifact? |
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Jan 6 2019, 07:55 PM
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#339
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2511 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
if I am not mistaken, occurred around 5am local solar time at the Opportunity site Tweet is dated 8:47 PM 1/5/2019, which I assume is PST. That's 04:47 UT on 2019-006 which according to MarsJ24 is 11:12 LMST at Opportunity. -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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Jan 7 2019, 12:59 AM
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#340
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1043 Joined: 17-February 09 Member No.: 4605 |
Nice and sunny albeit with a dusty haze. So was it a carrier lock on Opportunity?
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Jan 7 2019, 03:45 AM
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#341
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Member Group: Members Posts: 507 Joined: 10-September 08 Member No.: 4338 |
Nice and sunny albeit with a dusty haze. So was it a carrier lock on Opportunity? Most likely a lock on Maven, which was active shortly afterwards at a similar frequency and power level (when it uses LGA) https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1081790404515766272 I had thought the Oppy time specified at the Mars Rover site https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/home/ matched that at the Lemmon site http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~lemmon/mars/MERClocks/merb.html but they seem to have fallen out of synch. |
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Jan 7 2019, 02:13 PM
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#342
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Martian Photographer Group: Members Posts: 352 Joined: 3-March 05 Member No.: 183 |
Not sure what's up with the JPL clock. The other one is out of date by several leap seconds (and a sol 1k issue). The tau site has a more up to date clock.
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Jan 26 2019, 03:08 AM
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#343
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1372 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
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Jan 26 2019, 07:13 PM
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#344
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Member Group: Members Posts: 507 Joined: 10-September 08 Member No.: 4338 |
Interesting that they are checking for possible X-band radio and backup X-band radio failures, and trying UHF. There is a lot we don't know about major Martian dust storms. One would imagine with the cold and dryness there might be buildups of static electricity. Perhaps electrical discharges occur. (It might have been worthwhile for MRO to image the night side of Mars during the dust storm on the oft-chance that such discharges might be visible.) If Opportunity were to be hit by an electrical discharge, what would be most likely to be affected? Are there scenarios in which a limited subset of the facilities might be knocked out? |
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Jan 28 2019, 07:00 PM
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#345
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Member Group: Members Posts: 444 Joined: 1-July 05 From: New York City Member No.: 424 |
Kenneth Chang of the New York Times put up an elegiac article last Friday, with extensive comments by Steven Squyres: ‘This Could Be the End’ for NASA’s Mars Opportunity Rover.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/science/...nity-rover.html |
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