What Happened to Spirit Rover on Mars?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Labguy
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    News
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the operational status of the Spirit Rover on Mars, particularly focusing on its communication failures and potential recovery strategies. Participants explore the implications of robotic versus human missions to Mars, the technical challenges faced by the rover, and the broader context of space exploration.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express disappointment over the rover's communication failures and speculate on the implications of having a human presence on Mars.
  • Others argue that a human presence would not necessarily improve the situation and could complicate mission objectives due to life support requirements.
  • There is a discussion about the cost-effectiveness of robotic missions compared to manned missions, with some asserting that robotic missions yield more scientific data for the investment.
  • Participants mention that the rover appears to be stuck in a reboot cycle, which raises concerns about its power management and long-term viability.
  • Some express optimism about NASA's ability to regain control of the rover, citing reports of potential solutions to the identified issues.
  • There are humorous remarks about the software used by the rover, with references to Java and playful comments about Microsoft software.
  • Participants note that the rover has sent back data through the Odyssey orbiter, despite being in a problematic state, indicating some level of operational capability.
  • There is mention of the rover's flash memory issues and the potential for it to operate without it, which could influence future operations.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally express a mix of concern and optimism regarding the rover's situation, with no clear consensus on the effectiveness of human versus robotic missions. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the best approach to Mars exploration and the specific technical challenges faced by the rover.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight the limitations of the current situation, including the rover's power management issues and the uncertainty surrounding the reboot cycle. There are also unresolved questions about the implications of the rover's failures for future missions.

Labguy
Science Advisor
Messages
731
Reaction score
7
Today's Bad News?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20040122/ap_on_sc/mars_rover_27

Bummer
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Astronomy news on Phys.org
Dammit!
 
Now if they'd had a human being there...
 
Originally posted by selfAdjoint
Now if they'd had a human being there...
...he'd be dead.
 
Originally posted by russ_watters
...he'd be dead.
Hopefully they'd have the foresight to equip him with a space suit as well!

- Warren
 
Originally posted by chroot
Hopefully they'd have the foresight to equip him with a space suit as well!

- Warren
If he did have one, he could pull it back out of the pool of water they were looking for, dry it off and email "Eureka!"
 
Originally posted by russ_watters
...he'd be dead.

That's certainly a possibility. On the other hand, a human present may have been able to correct a problem not anticipated. Of course since this wasn't a manned mission in the first place, it is probably pointless to wonder what difference it would have made.
 
Damn, another one. Hopefully they will repair it somehow.

Two probes in a matter of weeks... I can imagine the alien conspiracy stories already.
 
If a human were there he would still be standing staring at his broken equipment tying to contact Earth to tell him what to do. There would not have been any significant amount of real analytical tools because the entire pay load would be devoted to life support systems for the TOURIST. They would totally incapable of doing any significant science because the Tourists would be more flyboys then scientists. Considering the cost of this mission for the limited payload, can you imagine the cost of a mission with a large enough capsule to support say 5 humans?

Until we can prefect Robotic missions sending men along will only result in bodies on Mars or in Space while reducing the amount core scientific information acquired by the mission.

Once we have perfected Robotic missions we can then start to send tourists into space.
 
  • #10
Hear, hear!

$400 million or so may seem expensive, but in any realistic analysis of cost-benefit, robotic science (outside the Earth's atmosphere) wins by many OOM ... even when you include realistic probability of failure.
 
  • #11
If a human were there he would still be standing staring at his broken equipment tying to contact Earth to tell him what to do.

Apollo 13.
 
  • #12
Originally posted by selfAdjoint
Apollo 13.

Did not have a communications failure, or they would have been dead.
 
  • #13
Originally posted by enigma
Did not have a communications failure, or they would have been dead.

...and almost were anyway.

As for today's news...

I heard late last night that the rover had failed to communicate just before the Martian sunset. The hope was that after shutting down for the evening it would come back up...as happened with the Viking missions a couple of times.

They still sound somewhat optimistic at NASA...officially...
 
  • #14
The last I read they had gotten a single tone reply to a request, which seemed to indicate that the rover went into safe-mode. This would mean that there is a chance that they could bring it back on line.
 
  • #16
It took a while for the Martians to finish building their duplicate simulated environment to put the rover in.



Njorl
 
  • #17
Originally posted by Njorl
It took a while for the Martians to finish building their duplicate simulated environment to put the rover in.



Njorl
Njorl, I love reading your posts!

On a related (kinda) note. Looks like they confirmed the detection of water/ice on Mars? http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/23/mars.water.ice/index.html
 
  • #18
Unfortunately, contact shows us that the Rover is trapped in an endless cycle of rebooting. It starts up, and in the course of going through its normal startup procedures it encounters an anomaly which convinces the onboard computer that it needs to reboot. Then it shuts down and repeats the process.

It seems to me one of the main dangers of this is that the Rover is probably continuing this cycle through the night, when the solar panels are not gathering energy. If the problem is not corrected soon, it could totally drain itself of all power and go permanently dead.
 
Last edited:
  • #19
that sounds like a death sentence to me...
 
  • #20
Uh oh.. sounds like they decided to use Microsoft software... *kidding*

- Warren
 
  • #21
I wonder if there is any plans for missions to inspect the carcases of all the dead hardware now littering the surface of Mars. Might be able learn something about what is happening.
 
  • #22
Do these crafts contain the CD's with names of the two million people who signed up? I wasn't sure which mission was supposed to carry these disks.
 
  • #23
Originally posted by Ivan Seeking
Do these crafts contain the CD's with names of the two million people who signed up? I wasn't sure which mission was supposed to carry these disks.

I believe it does.
 
  • #24
Okay so today (Sat. Jan. 24th) Spirit sent back a stream of data through the Odyssey orbiter. That's the good news, the bad news is it was supposed to be asleep at the time. NASA controllers had sent instructions twice for the orbiter to power down and conserve energy. It didn't.

However, according to http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spirit_relay_040124.html mission control thinks that they can maintain the Rover's health at its current state "indefinitely". That should give them time to find the solution, if there is one.

Opportunity's landing tonight will be broadcast live over the Internet on NASA TV. If you go to http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/home/index.html there is a link you can click.

I know where I'll be from 11 PM to 1 AM EST!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #25
And now, two hours later, I've read a report that they think they've isolated the problem. It would appear to be in thwe flash memory, which the rover can operate without. They say it will be a couple of weeks before they can try roving, though.
 
  • #26
Fantastic news!

From the NASA news conference: Assuming that the rover will last much more than ninety days, about which there is high confidence, now they even hope to complete all of the mission's objectives. The failure analysis suggested a particular strategy that yielded the correct response from the rover...so everyone is quite hopeful that they can regain control.
 
  • #27
Originally posted by chroot
Uh oh.. sounds like they decided to use Microsoft software... *kidding*

- Warren

FWIW, Spirit runs on Java. So do I, but the caffeinated kind from Columbia, not the software from Sun Microsystems that Spirit uses. Spirit runs on sun (solar) power too. More standing around than running lately I suppose.

Monday morning brain wanderings...
 
  • #28
Originally posted by Ivan Seeking
From the NASA news conference: Assuming that the rover will last much more than ninety days, about which there is high confidence...
Has a probe ever not exceeded its design life by double? Engineers are always conservative and there is a safety factor on top of that.

Did you guys see that it was essentially stuck in an error->reboot->error->reboot loop? It rebooted like 30 times before they regained control. Glad to see they've got it back now.
 
Last edited:
  • #29
Originally posted by Phobos
FWIW, Spirit runs on Java. So do I, but the caffeinated kind from Columbia, not the software from Sun Microsystems that Spirit uses. Spirit runs on sun (solar) power too. More standing around than running lately I suppose.

Monday morning brain wanderings...

Dammit Phobos, coffee comes from Colombia not Columbia,
have another cup :smile:
 
  • #30
well, I get it mail ordered with my CDs.

mea culpa
 

Similar threads

What is the Latest Rover on Mars and Who Helped Make it Happen?
  • · Replies 20 ·
Replies
20
Views
7K
Undergrad What's the scale on Mars rover "Microscopic Imager" images ?
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
3K
New comet has brightened to naked-eye visibility
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
3K
Private Rocket Plane Makes Historic Space Flight
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
Curiosity Rover makes Earth shattering discovery
  • · Replies 20 ·
Replies
20
Views
10K
A Surprising Revelation: The Truth About Asteroids and Earth
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
Moon occultation of Mars tonight
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
4K
Is Pi the Secret to Understanding Our Finite Universe?
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
5K
Great Ape Research: Captive Culture Experiments
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
4K
Graduate Pioneer Anomaly: Unravelling Physics' Mysteries
  • · Replies 65 ·
3
Replies
65
Views
17K