Mars Land Based Probe

[Rich Parsons]

Story Here

Do you believe it will work, or will it have some failure just like the other recent probes?

Thoughts?

 

[Rich Parsons]

Another interesting site about mars from NASA

 

[Rich Parsons]

A third Site about Mars

 

[michaeledward]

Almost as much as pornography, the 1997 Sojourner brought the internet to life. These trips to Mars are very inexpensive cosidering the payback they offer. They are, however, extremely high-risk operations. Any time we try to venture from the atmosphere, we take these risks.

The U.S. Failure rate for missions to Mars is about 1 failure in 3 attempts. We hear about the Beagle 2 not being able to phone home, but the Mars Global Surveyor has been capturing wonderfully detailed images of the planet for several years.

Both Spirit and Opportunity are scheduled to operate for 90 days. They are much more substantial probes, when compared to Sojourner. It is my hope that they provide an opportunity to get this country looking somewhere other than the Arabian Penninsula, and thinking about something other than fear of the 'Other'.

Mike

 

[Rich Parsons]

Well it landed and a strong Signal is being received.

 

[michaeledward]

And some pretty good initial photos too. Now we need to wait a few days to test everything before what some have called the riskiest part of the trip ... Getting the Rover off the Landing platform.

I'll be watching and reading a lot over the next 4 months.

 

[Rich Parsons]

Originally posted by michaeledward
And some pretty good initial photos too. Now we need to wait a few days to test everything before what some have called the riskiest part of the trip ... Getting the Rover off the Landing platform.

I'll be watching and reading a lot over the next 4 months.

Yes, it will be a while before it can crawl around, yet it landed on its' base. The craft was pyramid shaped and a 1 in 4 chance of landing directly on its base except for teh weighting and the shute deployment. Yet on impact it still could have rolled. The fact that it laned on its' base is a good sign to me, that it should be able to run its' diagnostic checks and determine which path is the best to exit the lander.

 

[michaeledward]

I thought we had some other threads referencing the mars rovers. But The search just dragged up this old thread.

Rich Parsons, I believe that inside the pyramid shape the rover was on a rotating base ... so that no matter which of the four sides ended up being the down side, the rover would be correctly positioned.

But, that is not why I am dragging up this thread.


I've been stuck in airplanes and airports for the entire day. I got to Hector Field in Fargo, ND at 9:00 AM this morning. It's now 13 and a half hours later, and I am in O'Hare - Chicago. With luck, I'll get back to Manchester, NH by noon time tomorrow --- I have mentioned I hate United Airlines today? ---

Well, in attempting to find something to amuse myself, I stumbled over this.... thought I would share ..

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54360

"Spirit has been displaying some anomalous behavior," said Project Manager John Callas, who noted the rover's unsuccessful attempts to flip itself over and otherwise damage its scientific instruments. "And the thousand or so daily messages of 'STILL NO WATER' really point to a crisis of purpose."