Mars Rover Gone Quiet
Discussion
Hubble photo of Mars showing the current dust storm, compared to how it usually looks:
https://nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/im...
The one on the left is from May 2016. The one on the right was taken on July 18, 2018.
Source, with a nice photo of Saturn too...
https://nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/saturn-and-m...
https://nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/im...
The one on the left is from May 2016. The one on the right was taken on July 18, 2018.
Source, with a nice photo of Saturn too...
https://nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/saturn-and-m...
The big Martian dust storm has cleared, but still no sign of life from the rover.
They can actually see it from the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=201...
They can actually see it from the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=201...
MartG said:
Eric Mc said:
Flat battery - probably.
I wonder if it was designed in such a way that the batteries can be charged without the computer being liveSo the low temperatures could have damaged the electronics.
Some hope... a bit old in terms of news.
NASA said:
... both Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, were constructed for 90-day missions (Spirit lasted 20 times longer and Opportunity is going on 60 times). The rovers were designed to travel about 1,000 yards, and Opportunity has logged more than 28 miles.
Wow!!! Especially when late at night you look to the south and see that reddish dot in the sky - there be robots.Here's the Deep Space Network site for live updates:
https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
beeep beeep booop
https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
beeep beeep booop
Well over 40 years. The Voyager designs were essentially frozen around 1973 or so. They were built in 1975/76 and launched in 1977.
The good thing is that the onboard computers were capable of being reprogrammed over the life of the spacecraft - so that means it is still possible to communicate with them and extract data from their transmissions.
The good thing is that the onboard computers were capable of being reprogrammed over the life of the spacecraft - so that means it is still possible to communicate with them and extract data from their transmissions.
Quote from Tom Faber
"This has happened several times in the last several months. They all have been signals from one of the orbiters Doppler shifted enough to fall into the frequency range that the DSN is searching for a signal from Opportunity. The receiver will lock up on that signal until told to resume searching. But people monitoring the DSN Now page jump to the conclusion that a signal has been received from Opportunity."
"This has happened several times in the last several months. They all have been signals from one of the orbiters Doppler shifted enough to fall into the frequency range that the DSN is searching for a signal from Opportunity. The receiver will lock up on that signal until told to resume searching. But people monitoring the DSN Now page jump to the conclusion that a signal has been received from Opportunity."
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