1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

Mars Rover Opportunity: 11 years and still going!

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by rocketsjudoka, Jan 26, 2015.

  1. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2007
    Messages:
    57,689
    Likes Received:
    47,477
    An incredible success story for NASA and the scientific community. A rover that had been designed for only 3 months continues to keep rolling.
    http://www.space.com/28353-mars-rover-opportunity-11-year-anniversary.html

    Mars Rover Opportunity Marks 11-Year Anniversary with Stunning Photo


    Mars Rover Opportunity Marks 11-Year Anniversary with Stunning Photo
    by Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | January 23, 2015 04:30pm ET

    NASA's Opportunity rover celebrated 11 years on Mars Saturday (Jan. 24), and the robot's handlers are marking the occasion with a gorgeous panoramic photo that Opportunity took of its Red Planet home.

    Opportunity landed on Mars on the night of Jan. 24, 2004, a few weeks after its twin, Spirit, made its Red Planet debut. The rovers were tasked with three-month missions to search for signs of past water activity on the Red Planet. Both Spirit and Opportunity found plenty of such evidence, and then kept rolling long after their warranties expired.

    Spirit stopped communicating with Earth in 2010 and was declared dead a year later, but Opportunity is still going strong. The robot has been exploring the rim of the 14-mile-wide (22 kilometers) Endeavour Crater since August 2011, and it crested a rise on the rim known as Cape Tribulation earlier this month. [Latest Mars Rover Photos from Opportunity & Spirit]

    Opportunity took a number of photos with its panoramic camera while at the summit of Cape Tribulation. Mission team members combined some of these images into a mosaic, which NASA released Thursday (Jan. 22) to mark the 11-year anniversary.

    Opportunity held its robotic arm so that a small American flag printed on the rover would be visible in the photos, NASA officials said.

    "The flag is printed on the aluminum cable guard of the rover's rock abrasion tool, which is used for grinding away weathered rock surfaces to expose fresh interior material for examination," agency officials wrote in a description of the image. "The flag is intended as a memorial to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York."

    "The aluminum used for the cable guard was recovered from the site of the twin towers in the weeks following the attacks," they added. "Workers at Honeybee Robotics in lower Manhattan, less than a mile from the World Trade Center, were making the rock abrasion tool for Opportunity and NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, in September 2001."

    Opportunity isn't celebrating the anniversary atop Cape Tribulation. The rover left the location on Jan. 17 to head for a spot mission scientists dubbed Marathon Valley, because Opportunity will have traveled the equivalent of a marathon — 26.2 miles, or 42.2 km — on Mars by the time it gets there.

    Opportunity's odometer currently reads 25.86 miles (41.62 km). The rover has driven farther on the surface of another world than any other vehicle. Opportunity broke the off-world driving record last year; it had been held by the former Soviet Union's remote-controlled Lunokhod 2 rover, which racked up 24.2 miles (39 km) on the moon in 1973.

    While Opportunity is still a highly capable machine, the golf-cart-size rover is showing some signs of age. Its robotic arm is a bit arthritic, for example, and Opportunity recently began having issues with its flash memory — the kind that can store data even when the power is off. Mission team members are testing out some potential software fixes for the memory problem.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. Pete the Cheat

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2006
    Messages:
    3,100
    Likes Received:
    487
    [​IMG]

    just need a little help from my friends
     
  3. PhiSlammaJamma

    Joined:
    Aug 29, 1999
    Messages:
    29,406
    Likes Received:
    7,528
    What does a 6 lb robot that is all alone think about all day?
     
  4. Cranberry_Juice

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2012
    Messages:
    882
    Likes Received:
    208
    should we trade Harden when his value is high?
     
    1 person likes this.
  5. MadMax

    MadMax Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 1999
    Messages:
    75,799
    Likes Received:
    24,225
    I'm still deeply disappointed we haven't discovered Banthas on Mars. I blame the Rover for that.
     
  6. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2007
    Messages:
    57,689
    Likes Received:
    47,477
    It did prove that that is no moon though.
     

Share This Page

  • About ClutchFans

    Since 1996, ClutchFans has been loud and proud covering the Houston Rockets, helping set an industry standard for team fan sites. The forums have been a home for Houston sports fans as well as basketball fanatics around the globe.

  • Support ClutchFans!

    If you find that ClutchFans is a valuable resource for you, please consider becoming a Supporting Member. Supporting Members can upload photos and attachments directly to their posts, customize their user title and more. Gold Supporters see zero ads!


    Upgrade Now