MER-B OPPORTUNITY

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Z okazji 16 rocznicy ataku na Workd Trade Center Stuart Atkinson autor bloga o Opportunity, do którego linka podałem w poprzednim poście napisał ciekawy artykuł:

Today, on the 16th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, it’s good to remember that both Mars Exploration Rovers were fitted with small pieces of the wreckage from the fallen World Trade Centres, as tributes to those who were murdered. Today, on Mars, Opportunity will no doubt, at some point, hold hers up against the pink martian sky in silent salute to the thousands of people who died on that terrible day. I also like to think of it as defiantly sticking up a finger at the scum who carried out the atrocities.
Opportunity, and her sister Spirit, are illustrations of how different people can be. On 9-11 ignorant scum chose to use modern technology to butcher innocent, terrified people. Today, on Mars, Opportunity, built by people who valued science, discovery and curiosity, is carrying a piece of the towers they toppled, proof that for all the evil and wickedness in some people’s hearts many, many more dedicate their lives to helping others and helping our species grow by exploring, by pushing back boundaries and by facing the unknown and the different with wonder-filled eyes instead of hate-filled hearts.

Give some people a box full of wires, circuits and other parts and they will make a bomb. Give others the same box and they will make an MRI scanner, a wheelchair or a Mars rover. And that’s the difference between us, and them. In a thousand years, when Opportunity is on display in the Museum of Mars, long after the fundamentalist lunatics have been forgotten, that small piece of the World Trade Centre will still be there for everyone to see – proof that no matter how cruel they are, how violent they are, how evil they are, people who carry out wicked attacks like that will never, ever, win.

https://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2017/09/11/2017-9-11-anniversary/

Nie wiedziałem, że na pokładzie łazików MER znalazły się fragmenty wież WTC.....

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Łazik Opportunity przekroczył już 45 km swojej jazdy 
Poza tym wykonuje badania atmosfery, pstryka fotki otoczenia

Although winter conditions are constraining activity, rover energy production has improved slightly, and more of the earlier relay passes from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are helping, as well. Opportunity has been able to avoid having to dedicate any sols to battery recharging.

The rover spent seven consecutive sols, Sols 4876 to 4882 (Oct. 11 to Oct. 17, 2017), collecting Panoramic Camera (Pancam) panoramas of the subject, called "La Bajada," totaling over 40 color stereo image pairs. Also, on Sol 4876 (Oct. 11, 2017), Opportunity was able to support an evening atmospheric argon measurement with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).

As of Sol 4882 (Oct. 17, 2017), the solar array energy production was 358 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.506 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.558.

Total odometry is 27.98 miles (45.04 kilometers).

https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status.html



Polecam też artykuł - newsa z Planetary Society opisujący wrześniowe perypetie Opportunity. Naprawdę warto poczytać, żeby uświadomić sobie ile warte są zdjęcia i badania wykonywane podczas marsjańskiej obecnej zimy:

Fragment artykułu:

Opportunity is producing enough energy to survive and to work, but she’s had to use a lot of that energy just to keep warm. The robot’s two rechargeable lithium ion [Li-ion] batteries, which provide energy for the rover when the Sun isn’t shining, are in effect her heartbeat. That heartbeat is being strained and the depths of the season are still ahead.

The winter solstice in the southern hemisphere of Mars where Endeavour and this rover are located won’t occur until November 19th or 20th depending on where you live on Earth. The day of the least amount of sunshine, what planetary scientists call minimum insolation, falls on Halloween. But that’s not as spooky as just how cold it is at Endeavour right now.

Mars has four seasons, just like Earth. But the seasons on Mars are about twice as long and during winter outside temperatures on the Red Planet in recent weeks have been plummeting from cold to “damn cold,” as MER Project Manager John Callas, of JPL, defined it. Model predictions of the rover’s external wall indicate Opportunity in September likely felt the freeze of minus-90 degrees Celsius [minus-130 degrees Fahrenheit], wind chill not factored.

It got so cold that the MER ops engineers huddled in September to come up with a plan to deploy a back-up, never-before-used battery heater to help out their robot colleague in the Martian field. Opportunity, true to her MER personality, pressed on.

“We are imaging and we have even looked at a couple of targets, pebbles within reach,” said MER Project Scientist Matt Golombek. “But things are slow going, because we’re approaching the dead of winter.”

The MER team’s science objective on this, its tenth extended mission, is to study the morphology or the shape and form of this valley. That translates, for the rover, into an imaging campaign. So, Opportunity’s objective is to take dozens of images at each stop along the route. At the end of the journey, the rover’s collection of image data will be used to produce a three-dimensional digital elevation model.

Then, using that model along with other data, the MER scientists will piece together clues and determine for once and for all what it was that carved this distinctive feature into the western rim of Endeavour billions of years ago.

Since it is winter, Opportunity is “hopping” from one energy-favorable slope – or "lily pad" to the next, as reported in last month’s MER Update. These lily pads are sites where the terrain is tilted sufficiently to the north to maximize the amount of Sun the solar-powered rover's solar panels takes in. The strategy, which has been used nearly every Martian winter since 2005, worked well through September, with the rover producing a little less than one-third her capability in 2004 on landing with clean solar arrays, enough to drive and work.

Despite the increasingly brutal cold, Opportunity was able to keep herself warm and work, at least a bit. But rove she did not. “The last drive was on 4836 (August 31, 2017) and we haven't moved since,” lamented Rover Planner Paolo Bellutta, who charts Opportunity’s paths. “We have plenty of power to survive, and to drive, it is just the combination of lack of flash [long-term] memory and the late [after sunset] Odyssey passes that are making things more difficult,” he said.

The realities cannot be ignored and now are part of the territory. In addition to the cold that is impacting the stamina of her battery power, the rover lost the use of her long-term memory, her Flash drive, nearly two years ago and is working in RAM mode. Since RAM is volatile memory, the data disappears when the rover shuts down, so the robot has to off-load all the work from each sol or Martian day to one of the Mars orbiters before she goes to sleep each night.

The challenge is that the Mars Odyssey orbiter, the rover’s primary communication link to Earth, circles by late in the Martian day, after sunset. That means the rover has to work and then stay awake until the orbiter comes into view. It all takes energy, especially in winter. So, when the rover must wait for Odyssey, she starts her workday later. The rub: late afternoon is not always a great time to be taking images.

http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/mer-updates/2017/09-mer-update-opportunity-braves-winter.html

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Pierwsze od kilku dni zdjęcia od Opportunity (4890):

















Podziwiam zespół, który zajmuje się Opportunity. Że udaje im się podczas marsjańskich zim utrzymać wiekowego łazika przy życiu 

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Wczoraj Opportunity podczas badań wykonał świetną fotografię:



https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/1/f/4893/1F562575352EFFD0EOP1231L0M1.HTML

Proszę zwrócić uwagę na prawą stronę zdjęcia 

[station]

Nadal nie potrafię się powstrzymać od zachwytów nad tym inżynieryjnym majstersztykiem, jakim jest Opportunity. Łazikowi za chwilę "stuknie" 15 lat (!) na powierzchni Marsa, a trzyma się tak, jakby wylądował tam parę tygodni temu. To także pokazuje, jak daleko do przodu poszła technika / inżynieria w konstruowaniu próbników planetarnych. Pozostaje pytanie czy Opportunity "przeskoczy" w działaniu Curiosity i czy nadal będzie sprawny, gdy na Czerwoną Planetę dotrą (oby) kolejne, konstruowane obecnie łaziki.

[juram]

Zgoda na 100% - STATION/b]

MER - Opportunity jest absolutnym rekordzistą wśród wszystkich marsjańskich łazików w historii badań Marsa!!!

[tisher]

Jest gdzieś jakaś strona z informacją o stanie technicznym pojazdu?
Co działa i co nie działa i dlaczego?

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Jest gdzieś jakaś strona z informacją o stanie technicznym pojazdu?
Co działa i co nie działa i dlaczego?

Tisher poszukaj w moich powyższych postach. Była tam mowa w jakim stanie jest łazik a przynajmniej był podawany link do arta z Planetary Society 

P.S. Poczytaj mojego posta z 24 października 2017 roku 

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Ciekawa tekstura skały badanej przez Opprotunity kilka dni temu (sol 4900)







A tutaj Oppy podczas prac nad przedmiotową skałą



https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/opportunity.html

 

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Prawie najnowsze wiadomości od Opportunity

Opportunity is continuing her winter exploration of Perseverance Valley on the west rim of the Noachian-aged Endeavour Crater.

Although the depth of the winter solstice is still a week or more away, energy levels have improved for Opportunity. One contributor is the improvement in solar array dust factor as winds blow some of the dust off the arrays. That said, the rover did spend one sol, Sol 4906 (Nov. 11, 2017), as a recharge sol.

On Sol 4903 (Nov. 8, 2017), Opportunity continued a multi-sol integration of the surface target, called "Mesilla" using the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). The rover also continued to collect the extensive Panoramic Camera (Pancam) panoramas as part of the comprehensive digital survey of the valley.

On Sol 4907 (Nov. 12, 2017), the rover drove 30 feet (9 meters) to the northeast set up for another surface target investigation and more imaging.

As of Sol 4909 (Nov. 14, 2017), the solar array energy production was 393 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.410 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.619.

Total odometry is 27.99 miles (45.05 kilometers).


http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Winds_Blow_Dust_off_the_Solar_Panels_Improving_Energy_Levels_999.html

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Porcja fascynujących wieści od Opportunity z miesiąca października

http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/mer-updates/2017/10-mer-update-opportunity-etched-rocks-perseverance.html

 

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Marsjański orła cień 



https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/opportunity_n4911.html

Zdjęcie wykonane za pomocą kamery nawigacyjnej w sol 4911

Poza tym nie wiedziałem, że Preservance Valley jest taka stroma 



https://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/sol-4893/

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Kolejna porcja wiadomości tym razem z październikowych listopadowych dokonań Opportunity na Marsie 

http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/mer-updates/2017/11-mer-update-opportunity-returns-findings-from-perseverance.html

 

Poniżej trochę ciekawszych kwiatków z artykułu:

Opportunity found signs of near neutral water in remnants of clay minerals in 2012-2013 at Cape York’s Matijevic Hill. Hopes are high that the rover’s forensic findings in Perseverance will uncover critical clues the scientists need to determine how much water was once here and whether it could have fed potentially habitable environments. “We’re doing the same thing we’d do if we were there as astronauts – walking around and looking for evidence,” said MER Deputy Principal Investigator Ray Arvidson, of Washington University St. Louis. “What we’re after is any indication of process.”

Perched over one of the bright, flat rocks on the northern outcrop of a site the team named La Bajada, the rover scored a small one for wind this past month.

La Bajada features “two different bedrock units in direct proximity” separated by rubbley terrain, “perhaps broken up rock that’s been filled in by sand,” said MER Project Scientist Matt Golombek, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the birthplace of all of NASA’s Mars rovers. While the southern outcrop is darker in tone and lumpy with rocks, the northern outcrop is flatter and lighter toned.



Odkrywka skalna ,,Bajada"

Opportunity worked through the Thanksgiving holiday, taking as many pictures as possible while most of her human colleagues took a break. Then, the robot trekked farther downhill to another north-facing slope deeper in the valley, stopping about 15 meters away from an area where a large trough splits, a bifurcation zone in geologist jargon. “There’s discussion about what branch of the trough should we take,” said Callas. “We keep quoting Yogi Berra: ‘When you come to a fork in the road, take it.’”

Beyond the MER humor, something else awaits Opportunity. At this bifurcation zone, separating the two branches of the trough, is a mesa or “raised, lozenge shaped area,” as Arvidson described it, that is about 10 meters wide. “It could be a bar. It could be a resistant outcrop,” he said. For now, it is the mission’s next Martian mystery.

During the final sols of November, Opportunity finished up the visual survey of the surrounding landscape, taking extensive Pancam stereo color panoramas, as well as the requisite drive direction imagery. Then, on Sol 4922 (November 27, 2017), she drove 14.4 meters (47.24 feet) northeast to the next lily pad down the valley, “toward a split in the valley,” said Bellutta. “The rover’s azimuth was about 70 degrees as predicted.”

The drive bought the rover’s odometer 45.067 kilometers (28.00 miles), another rover record for MER. But perhaps the best news was that the telemetry confirmed that “the steering actuators [or motors] did not suffer and we reached a decent northerly tilt,” Bellutta said.

The plan, as of November’s end, is for Opportunity to drive closer to the head of the trough, the bifurcation zone, in December, image it, and then the science team will have to make a choice: take the left trough or the right trough. “We’ll be looking for erosional features or depositional features like sediment,” said Arvidson

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Łazik Opportunity przeżył najkrótsze dni obecnej marsjańskiej zimy ale przed nim jeszcze sezon burz pyłowych, które zdarzają się podczas wiosny i lata na półkuli południowej.

NASA's senior Mars rover, Opportunity, has just passed the shortest-daylight weeks of the long Martian year with its solar panels in encouragingly clean condition for entering a potential dust-storm season in 2018.

Before dust season will come the 14th Earth-year anniversaries of Mars landings by the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity in January 2004. Their missions were scheduled to last 90 Martian days, or sols, equivalent to about three months.

Ładna panoramka wykonana z zdjęć Opportunity 



https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7018

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Zapodaję linka do panoramy Marathon Valley
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA20749
Znana nam jest ona od bodajże roku tylko, że pod podanym linkiem jest panorama o dużej rozdzielczości, przynajmniej jak na standardy galerii JPL