[meteorite-list] Mars Rovers' Lifetime Boosted

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:47 2004
Message-ID: <200403091707.JAA26164_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3545747.stm

Mars rovers' lifetime boosted
By Paul Rincon
BBC News
March 9, 2004

The US space agency's Mars rovers may work for up to 240 days on the Red
Planet, about 150 more than the mission team had originally projected.

Mission engineers have analysed power data for both Spirit and Opportunity
which shows the vehicles are performing much better than they had expected.

It means the rovers can keep scouting Mars for many more interesting rocks.

Lead scientist Professor Steve Squyres
made the announcement by satellite link-up to a Mars conference in London.

But the mission team adds that its original estimates of Mars' environment
and the rovers' performance were very conservative.

The rovers use energy from the Sun to power their batteries, using triangular
solar panels that sit horizontally around their waists. The panels have
proven to be very efficient.
Heater issue

In addition, the rovers have not needed to use up as much power for heating
because the Mars climate has been warmer than projections implied.

Spirit and Opportunity will now be able to stay longer on the surface of
Mars to carry out tests, something which has taken on new importance after
the discovery of firm evidence showing Mars had the wet environments to
support life.

"They will be able to travel some distance from the landing sites to
see a different type of terrain, a different type of geological formation,"
said Jake Matijevic, assistant engineer at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"There is probably more driving in our future."

He added that the revised estimate of 240 sols, or Martian days, for the
rovers' lifetime was a good estimate, but could change if the Martian
environment or the health of the rovers changed.

Opportunity has been suffering power loss due to a faulty heater in its
robotic arm since it landed on 25 January.

But Mr Matijevic said plans to remove the power source to the heater for
part of the night would even things out between the two rovers.
Received on Tue 09 Mar 2004 12:07:30 PM PST