The twin rover, Spirit, became mired in deep sand and its last communication with Earth was on March 22, 2010. Opportunity is currently alone on the red planet, but will be joined by the next generation in rover technology in August, 2012. Curiosity is a substantial mobile laboratory with a nuclear power source. The landing system is unique and we are hoping for a good start for the mission.
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| The vista circa May, 2012. This is the largest crater in the journey and represents the oldest rock strata. You can see the edge of one of the solar panels in the foreground. The dust accumulation is reducing power output. |
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| Discovery from late 2011: Gypsum like deposits caused by free water percolating through rock strata. Opportunity and Spirit both observed evidence of past free water on the surface of Mars. |
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| Self portrait from 2007. The solar cell still look pretty clean. |
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/multimedia/pia15684.html
Video: Eight Years and Counting
Congratulations to Opportunity and the many builders and mission operators of NASA. The mission is now open ended. We hope Opportunity keeps producing good science for many days to come.
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| Opportunity in 2002 |
Besides the moon landings, this is one of the most amazing projects at NASA. It goes to show what Made in the USA & a properly funded government project can do. If this venture was left to private enterprise we'd be lucky if the Rover made it the 90 days for which the mission was designed. Even the way the shuttle program was messed with from the start, it lasted 30 years!
ReplyDeleteThis is an incredibly successful program. The emerging private contractors have some big shoes to fill. We'll see how it turns out.
DeleteI find this very interesting. I'll be keeping abreast with developments on Opportunity and the Mars mission. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteSpace Geek Me always dreamed of visiting other worlds. All started when I read Bradbury's 'R is for Rocket' and saw Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' in the same year. I was 10. I felt I found my imagination's reality home.
ReplyDeleteI think my first space reading was thrift shop Tom Swift books. I hate to say it, but the first viewing I can remember was the TV series "Lost in Space". It was hokey, but I loved it.
DeleteThis.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget about the little one that started it all: Sojourner. I was actually sad when the little gal shut down, and sad again when Spirit finally spoke her last. True testaments to engineering, those rovers. I've got fingers and all other body parts crossed that Curiosity has a good landing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. I was in awe of Sojourner at the time and still am. It did a lot considering the technology available at the time. Be sure to take a look at a video of the Curiosity landing system.
DeleteNow for a Geek pipe dream: I'd like to see a rover tough enough to cruise the surface of Venus. I have no idea whether the science would be worthwhile, it is more about the challenge of the thing. I remember growing up with the Venera program. Venus is one hell of an engineering challenge.
Europa is the real prize. But we should not send anything there until we are sure we won't screw it up.
All: thanks for comments! Our family potential engineer of the future has a birthday this week and finds the rover program to be particularly inspiring. The timing of this post was intentional. Happy Birthday, gingercat!
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