Unmanned Spaceflight.com > The Planetary Society Rover's Update (August 31, 2007)

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Unmanned Spaceflight.com > Mars & Missions > MER > Opportunity

Del Palmer

Sep 2 2007, 06:48 PM

http://www.planetary.org/news/2007/0831_Ma...ate_Spirit.html

Looks like Steve Squyres was busy with other rovers (and polar bears) this month:

QUOTE

Squyres was leading a team to test out past and present life-seeking instruments for future Mars rovers on NASA's Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition and facing "some very challenging conditions," as he put it. "In 10 years of doing rover field tests, it turned out to be the first time I've had a command approval meeting interrupted by a polar bear," he elaborated. The humans stood down, the bear was diverted from the test rovers, and Squyres returned to his Cornell University MER base in one piece earlier this week.

Del Palmer

Sep 2 2007, 07:06 PM

More from NASA's Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/amase/index.html

Steve's journal entry:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/new...e07_entry5.html

tty

Sep 2 2007, 08:13 PM

I wonder why they chose Svalbard? Admittedly it is the part of the Arctic that it is simplest and cheapest to get to (but definitely not the safest part since it has a very high density of polar bears). However it has a very maritime arctic climate. I would have thought that a dry arctic environment (e. g. northeastern Greenland, Wrangel's land or the Parry archipelago) would be much more relevant for Martian research.

CosmicRocker

Sep 3 2007, 04:24 AM

Hehe...I guess it is good to hear that Steve managed to avoid being eaten by a bear. There is a high probability he will survive the rovers, too.

It might be interesting to hear more about why this location was chosen for the tests. But after reading the descriptions of the experiments that were performed, they seemed more aimed at simulating communications between a rover's instruments and its controllers on Earth. If that is the case, the local climatic conditions might be of secondary importance.

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