The Little Robots That Could(n’t)
Spirit and Opportunity, the two little rovers that NASA sent to Mars were designed to last three months. Three years later, they are still operating. But it does not look like they will survive much longer unless conditions on Mars change soon. Massive dust storms have cut the sunlight reaching the planet surface by 95%. The little robots depend on solar power - and 5% is not enough to keep the vital heaters running for much longer.
A raging dust storm on Mars has cut power to NASA's twin rovers to dangerously low levels, threatening an end to the mission.
The rovers were slated to operate for only 3 months but have been on Mars more than 3 years, so mission officials have had ample time to ponder the their silencing.
The storm presents perhaps the rover team's biggest challenge, NASA said in a statement today. Scientists said the storm, which has been brewing for nearly a month, is blocking around 85 to 90 percent of all sunlight to the surface.
The rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, rely on sunlight to charge their solar panels, and one or both rovers could be damaged permanently or even disabled by the limited solar power, officials said.
SPACE.com reported the storm's fresh severity earlier today.
Scientists fear the storms might continue for several days or weeks. If the sunlight is further slashed for an extended period, the rovers will not be able to generate enough power to keep warm and operate at all, even in a near-dormant state, the statement said.
The rovers use electric heaters to keep vital core electronics from becoming too cold.
"We're rooting for our rovers to survive these storms, but they were never designed for conditions this intense," said Alan Stern, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
"To give you a sense of the 'thickness' of the dust, the brightness of the sun as viewed from the surface is now down to less than 5 percent of what it would be with a perfectly transparent atmosphere," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, who is the lead scientist of the Mars Exploration Rover Project. "Of course, Mars never has a perfectly transparent atmosphere, but the sun is still very faint."
This would be a very sad ending to a great story. (I kind of suspect NASA is letting word out like this because they do not anticipate good news soon. Kind of a "get ready for the bad news" press release.)
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Level Heads — Saturday, 21 July , 2007 @ 7:46 am
By Mwalimu Daudi, Friday, 20 July , 2007 @ 7:49 pm
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Pardon me, but did not global warming advocates point out that storms would increase in intensity as the Earth got warmer? Who knew that Haliburton's foul arm could reach so far? What's next - Category 5 hurricanes on Pluto? There is only one way to save the Mars rovers and preserve the environment of the Solar System: IMPEACH BUSH NOW!
(EDIT: Mwalimu, watch the tags, dude! You left the bold tag open.)
By Blackhawk, Friday, 20 July , 2007 @ 9:10 pm
Oh, poo. Man’w response to the Animal Uprising, aka Robotic Invasion of Other Planets, may have a minor setback. Still….3 months planned (on another planet (NOT PLUTO)), 3 years running…sounds like good money spent.
Kudos to NASA and the rover’s posse.
By Gaius, Friday, 20 July , 2007 @ 9:40 pm
They done good here, I think.