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  Opportunity on Mars: Questions, comments

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Author Topic:   Opportunity on Mars: Questions, comments
Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 08-10-2011 11:31 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Opportunity on Mars: mission viewing, questions, comments
This thread is intended for comments and questions regarding the Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover and the updates published under the topic: NASA's Opportunity roves Mars (2010-Present).

Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004. Both rovers continued for years of bonus, extended missions.

Spirit finished communicating with Earth in March 2010.

Both Spirit and Opportunity have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life.

SpaceAholic
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Posts: 4437
From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 07-07-2012 11:38 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceAholic   Click Here to Email SpaceAholic     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Nice panorama: 'Greeley Panorama' from Opportunity's Fifth Martian Winter
This full-circle scene combines 817 images taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. It shows the terrain that surrounded the rover while it was stationary for four months of work during its most recent Martian winter.

cspg
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Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 02-17-2018 03:55 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Apparently no funding allowed for the rover past Fiscal Year 2019...

Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 02-17-2018 07:50 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
In the administration's FY2019 budget proposal, yes.

As NASA is funded on a year-to-year basis, a zeroed out budget in the out years doesn't necessarily mean it won't be funded going forward. Rather, it will be something that Congress will need to take up in FY20 and each year after (assuming the White House's FY20 proposal doesn't revise that line item first).

Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-16-2018 07:02 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Rover driver Paolo Bellutta's video:
Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity Sols 1 through 5104 front left hazcam view. Sound comes from the on-board accelerometer used in this case as a microphone, louder sound corresponds to rougher terrain.

SpaceAholic
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Posts: 4437
From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-16-2018 10:09 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceAholic   Click Here to Email SpaceAholic     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Opportunity could have had an even greater extended lifetime if it had the ability to clean its solar panels of dust, reports Forbes.
Because of the results from Sojourner, we knew that dust would accumulate on the solar panels, but only at the extremely slow rate of ~0.29% per Martian day. Over a 90 day mission, that meant a total reduction in power of 23%. There were a number of options, then, for how to design Spirit and Opportunity...

Instead, we chose the most cost-effective (i.e., cheapest) solution: simply build bigger solar panels. If, over a 90 day mission, we expected up to 23% dimming, then by building solar panels with at least 23% more surface area, we'd ensure we had all the power we need.

ManInSpace
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Posts: 114
From: Brooklin, Ontario Canada
Registered: Feb 2018

posted 08-17-2018 04:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ManInSpace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From this NASA release:
NASA's Opportunity rover has been silent since June 10, when a planet-encircling dust storm cut off solar power for the nearly-15-year-old rover. Now that scientists think the global dust storm is "decaying" — meaning more dust is falling out of the atmosphere than is being raised back into it — skies might soon clear enough for the solar-powered rover to recharge and attempt to "phone home."
I have read many articles over the years referring to the rovers going into a "hibernation" mode; but until today had no idea of the many potential issues that could arise while resuming full operations.

Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 02-13-2019 01:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA's Opportunity rover mission is at an end after almost 15 years exploring the surface of Mars and helping lay the groundwork for NASA's return to the Red Planet.
The Opportunity rover stopped communicating with Earth when a severe Mars-wide dust storm blanketed its location in June 2018. After more than a thousand commands to restore contact, engineers in the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made their last attempt to revive Opportunity Tuesday, to no avail. The solar-powered rover's final communication was received June 10.

"I cannot think of a more appropriate place for Opportunity to endure on the surface of Mars than one called Perseverance Valley," said Michael Watkins, director of JPL. "The records, discoveries and sheer tenacity of this intrepid little rover is testament to the ingenuity, dedication, and perseverance of the people who built and guided her."

SpaceAngel
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Posts: 307
From: Maryland
Registered: May 2010

posted 02-13-2019 03:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceAngel   Click Here to Email SpaceAngel     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Rest in peace Opportunity and thanks for a decade and a half of your service on Mars.

Fra Mauro
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Posts: 1587
From: Bethpage, N.Y.
Registered: Jul 2002

posted 02-13-2019 05:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Fra Mauro   Click Here to Email Fra Mauro     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Rest in peace Opportunity. Thank you for all the wonderful photos and science. You are a monument to all the people at NASA and to the spirit of exploration. May you be visited one day by someone from Earth just like Surveyor was visited by Conrad and Bean.

randy
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Posts: 2176
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 02-13-2019 07:40 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for randy   Click Here to Email randy     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
May she rest in peace.

SkyMan1958
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Posts: 867
From: CA.
Registered: Jan 2011

posted 02-13-2019 10:15 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SkyMan1958   Click Here to Email SkyMan1958     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you for all the memories, Opportunity!!!

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