I can't believe MGS is still going up there. It's as old as pathfinder!!! does anyone know where to find information on how much UDMH/MMH fuel its got left? It can't be much since there's no appreciable magnetic field around mars it can't use magnetotorquers like hubble can for reaction wheel desaturation maneuvers so it must be forced to use some fuel all the time.... I can't imagine it can last much longer. Oh and how come MGS TES isn't being used for global dust characterization anymore you'd think this would be a priority now that MER is on the ground....

From the MGS Status Report February 16, 2005:

"On 05-044 the TES spectrometer was turned on. Evaluation of this data has led to a reduced estimate of remaining life in the spectrometer lamp. Periodic turn-on of the TES spectrometer has been abandoned for the present."

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/status/reports/msop-mgs.html

They are using a 12 degree off nadir attitude for quite a while to reduce momentum buildup and fuel usage. AFAIK it's working fine. I dont't have any idea about the remaining fuel, but the current extension is until September 2006 (solar conjunction).

Analyst

??At first I thought HUH ?? Lamp?? Why does TES need a lamp? It's a spectrometer! But after much searching I found this page which says "The interferometer includes a visible interferometer that is used to generate fringes which are used to control the linear drive servo and to determine position in the interferogram. This system uses two redundant neon lamps that produce an emission line at 703.2 nm for fringe generation and a continuum that is used for a quasi-white-light source for determination of zero path difference. The off-axis position of the six detectors results in self-apodization and a spectral shift that is a function of both distance from the axis and optical frequency." ohhhh now I see. After more searching I found this: photo of the lamp they used. It's just a little neon indicator lamp! They've been using the backup lamp since the original lamp failed way back in 1998! These things fail all the time in those little red switches in power strips and, well practically everywhere I see them used they inevitalbly start blinking and flickering after being used for any length of time. I bet they didn't use a DC to AC inverter to power it because of space and power issues and just used the DC power of MGS to light it instead. Using DC power on those things reduces thier life greatly for some reason.... oh well, it had a good run!

And GOOD science at that :

MGS Finds Viking Lander 2 and Mars Polar Lander (Maybe)

Hmmm, I wonder if the cPROTO technique can be used with HIRISE?

No - it's already using a similar technique to do its observations

Doug

At this rate, when we finally have a human Mars landing in the year 2105, MGS will provide CPROTO coverage!

(this is the forum I originally meant to post this - I have multiple browser windows open.

MGS: They are low on remaining hydrazine to desaturate the momentum wheels. The current extension may be the last or they may squeeze one more mission extension out of the fuel. They've also been able to "optimize" things for low hydrazine use.

I think I recall they intend to put the spacecraft in a "disposal" orbit some 100 km higher when they formally retire it so it won't decay anytime soon.

The spectrometer (as I gather) isn't dead. I think they're saving what remaining life it has it for special science opportunities, say the outbreak of a global dust storm or something.

I could be wrong here, but I think I remember reading that after they revised estimates of its orbital decay in current orbit, they scrapped plans for the disposal orbit.

That could well be true. Mission engineering updates that float past in public view have dwindled to zero. I don't know what could be buried on obscure mission web sites and the like.

From

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/status/reports/msop-mgs.html

"As of 05-153 (06/02/05) MGS fuel consumption is 3.3 g/day, with 9.15 kg of usable fuel remaining. At this consumption rate, the usable fuel will support operations into 2013."

Miles to go ...

And from the June 22 status report:

Upcoming Events:
MGS will complete 30,000 total orbits on July 9th.

That's some miles.

!!!! WOW! I figured it couldn't possibly have more than a year or so left, but 8?! holy crap! its only halfway through its life then!