Okay, I admit it. That XKCD always brings a little tear to my eye.
Done and dusted? Vast storm gobbles NASA's long-lived Mars robot
As NASA's Opportunity rover nears its 15th birthday, engineers are worried the plucky little robot may not survive a worsening Martian dust storm. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spotted the approaching storm on 1 June, giving the Opportunity team notice to kick off their contingency plans. The storm now covers more than …
COMMENTS
-
-
-
Monday 11th June 2018 13:13 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Bring It Home
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever Roverian. There shall be
On that bare gravel a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom NASA bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her wheels to rove, radios to talk,
A body of Earth's, now in Martian air,
Unwashed by rivers, blast'd by arid red storms.
.
And think, this battery, all power shed away,
No pulse in the eternal cpu, no less,
Gave sometime back those things by Terra wanted;
The sights and sounds; detail far and near;
No laughter, learnt of friends; but the scanning eyes, computation,
and wheels at peace; under an Martian heaven.
-
-
-
-
-
Monday 11th June 2018 13:30 GMT Jellied Eel
Re: Science!
Science always has problems with observers. So simple reason Opportunity's been going so long is that other scientists are observing this strange new machine life that's landed on their planet. Thus far, the observation's been pretty benign, so a stealthy dust and the odd nudge. And the observers have been able to study various iterations dating back to the first Mars landings, and gauge their creator's technological development. But they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water...
I'm still determined that if I ever successfully crack wormhole travel, I'm going to plonk a 'Keep Off the Grass!' sign in front of Opportunity or Curiosity. I blame Peter F. Hamilton for planting that seed.
-
-
-
Monday 11th June 2018 12:59 GMT Kaltern
It'll be fine, it'll get to -39.999ºC and just at the point of disaster, a ray of sun will fall upon it's dust smeared panels, and a spark of energy will crackle along it's old, worn out circuits... bringing it back for another year of cold, desolate lonliness while trundling across an unforgiving, alien world. All in the name of science.
Either that or Curiosity could trundle over and give it a jump start...
-
Monday 11th June 2018 14:30 GMT Ugotta B. Kiddingme
in the immortal words of Leslie Nielsen
"...good luck. We're all counting on you."
And regardless how it turns out, thanks for all the science
-
-
Monday 11th June 2018 15:00 GMT Lee D
Re: Mission at end?
Seriously, if I were the first Mars colonist, I'd hunt these things down and repurpose them.
How about the first thing you see when you land on Mars being one of the rovers, being used as part of the major systems to monitor the airflow or temperature, or greet visitors?
-
Monday 11th June 2018 15:24 GMT Tikimon
Re: Mission at end?
"Seriously, if I were the first Mars colonist, I'd hunt these things down and repurpose them."
And this is why the Pyramids, Colosseum, and so many other historical structures are RUINS. "Nobody's using that, let's dismantle it to scavenge the rocks!" Away, thoughtless jackal!
If I were the first Mars colonist I wold reverently visit these priceless pieces of history and place markers listing their history and accomplishments. Also a sentry gun and a KEEP OFF THE ROVER sign.
-
Monday 11th June 2018 15:55 GMT Lee D
Re: Mission at end?
There's nothing stopping you doing that - build a huge glass jar over it, a bright light overhead to "power" it and then suck the data from its sensors that it's trying to radio home.
Or a new command program sent to it to waves its little arms at visitors.
Just because you want to use something, doesn't mean you need to destroy it.
-
Monday 11th June 2018 23:08 GMT Grikath
Re: Mission at end?
"If I were the first Mars colonist I wold reverently visit these priceless pieces of history and place markers listing their history and accomplishments. Also a sentry gun and a KEEP OFF THE ROVER sign."
We shall mark the spot where you perished with a small cairn, while repurposing your corpse and anything it is in, the rover, the plaque, and the sentry gun.
Sentimentalism is nice for armchair philosophers. It is useless in a hostile, if not deadly environment, where every scrap of material has to be imported against a huge gravity well and a rather inconvenient time schedule.
-
Tuesday 12th June 2018 10:37 GMT Cuddles
Re: Mission at end?
"It is useless in a hostile, if not deadly environment, where every scrap of material has to be imported against a huge gravity well"
The thing about planets is that there's already quite a lot of material already on them. Early explorers may need to take everything with them, but any kind of long term presence will have to figure out how to make use of the resources already there. Which means at no point is there any use in dismantling a rover or two - either you have everything with you and relying on salvage means you've already fucked up incredibly badly (The Martian was fiction, even the author happily admits that there would have been no hope of survival in reality), or you're using an entire planet's worth of resources and the stuff in a single rover is meaningless.
-
-
-
-
Monday 11th June 2018 21:20 GMT Anonymous Coward
Well, let's be accurate here
It was designed by engineers to last 90 days. If it had been designed by bookkeepers it would at best have made it to day 50 and that would have been that.
Now it has provided a LOT more science for the buck, and I join you all in hoping that it survives - yet again.
-
-
Wednesday 13th June 2018 20:20 GMT Javc
Re: Well, let's be accurate here
"I sincerely hope the engineers responsible were at least thanked."
Before the landing of Spirit and Opportunity, JPL director Charles Elachi said if this landing works I'll give you guys whatever you want. Someone jokingly said, "free ice cream." After the landings, JPL management set up ice cream coolers in the hallways of rover operations, and for the first few months while we were all living on Mars time, they kept the coolers stocked with ice cream bars. So yes, that was a proper thanks.
-
-
-
-
Tuesday 12th June 2018 17:47 GMT Antron Argaiv
Re: Dont worry guys......flatty mcflatface!
...mainly because we're paying for such meaningless pursuits.
And you would spend the money on...?
You do realise, I'm sure, that NASA's budget is miniscule, compared to what it's costing the US to play shoot-em-up in the Middle East? And that the Mars rovers are a tiny part of that miniscule budget?
Yes, we'd all like to see less starvation, better education (arguably something NASA does quite well, when it's allowed to), equal rights for all and, of course, a cure for cancer. But the money spent to put those rovers up there is a pretty small sum, considering what we have learned from their being where they are.
-
Wednesday 11th July 2018 12:36 GMT Anonymous Coward
In related news
Possibility of liquid water on Ross-128, and it may even have plate tectonics as the elemental distribution is similar to the Earth.
It could be habitable but right at the edge of the inner HZ so possibly tidally locked.
Not necessarily bad as the clouds on the "day" side might redistribute heat evenly.