NASA rover reaches rim of big Martian crater [Forum Archive]

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NASA rover reaches rim of big Martian crater

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Posted by: Curt James

NASA rover reaches rim of big Martian crater

By Alicia Chang

August 10, 2011

LOS ANGELES (AP) - NASA's surviving Mars rover Opportunity has reached the rim of a 14-mile-wide crater where the robot geologist will examine rocks older than any it has seen in its seven years on the surface of the red planet, scientists said Wednesday.

The solar-powered, six-wheel rover arrived at Endeavour crater after driving 13 miles from a smaller crater named Victoria.

The drive, which took nearly three years, culminated Tuesday, when Opportunity signaled it had arrived at the location dubbed Spirit Point in honor of the rover's twin, which fell silent last year.

"We're there," said project manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Opportunity and Spirit landed on opposite sides of Mars in 2004 and used their instruments to discover geologic evidence that the cold and dusty planet was once wet.

Craters can provide windows into the planet's past because layers of material from long-ago eras are exposed.

Endeavour crater is more*than 25 times wider than Victoria.

Callas said the plan is to drive a bit closer to the rim to take pictures of the oldest rocks seen by Opportunity.

"This is a brand new mission," Callas said.

Since landing, Opportunity has studied sulfate sediments that pointed to an environment that was once wetter and warmer.

"Now we have rocks that predate that," Callas said.

The rover's work is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program strategy known as "follow the water," which looks for evidence that liquid water once existed or perhaps still exists on the planet. Liquid water is considered essential for the potential for some form of life to have developed.

Last week, research based on observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter theorized that dark, fingerlike features that appear spring through summer on some Martian slopes then fade in winter could be flows of briny water.

Saltiness would be necessary to lower the freezing temperature of water.

A big, new NASA rover named Curiosity is awaiting launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a $2.5 billion mission to explore a towering mountain inside a 96-mile-wide crater to determine if there were once conditions capable of supporting microbial life.

Curiosity, powered by a radioisotope instead of sunlight, is expected to land on Mars in August 2012.

AP Writer John Antczak contributed to this report.

Follow Alicia Chang's coverage at Alicia Chang (SciWriAlicia) on Twitter

From The Associated Press

Posted by: KelJu

I have been keeping up with this for a very long time. It is a testament to the quality of our incredible engineers. The rover was suppose to last for 90 days. The son of a bitch has been going non-stop for 7 years. 7 fucking years!

Whoever was on the project design team for that rover needs to building cars and shit.

Posted by: AdmiralRichard

Originally Posted by KelJu

I have been keeping up with this for a very long time. It is a testament to the quality of our incredible engineers. The rover was suppose to last for 90 days. The son of a bitch has been going non-stop for 7 years. 7 fucking years!

Whoever was on the project design team for that rover needs to building cars and shit.

I wonder did the japs make it for ya mates.You know the americans don't make stuff that lasts

Posted by: danzik17

Originally Posted by KelJu

Damn, it's been 7 years already? My brother was was involved in the design of some of the drilling and rock abrasion tools on the rovers, so I follow this stuff as well.

Posted by: maniclion

Originally Posted by KelJu

I design for my PV systems to last, but for a capitalist system to thrive stuff has to break shortly after it's warranty or that's the way it seems to be.

Look at buildings in Europe that have been there for 500+ years and now with all the technology we have our homes will be lucky to last 100 years...

We rush through projects and do them half ass and as cheap as possible then wonder why bridges collapse or why a building can be demolished by a plane crash...

Posted by: myCATpowerlifts

Originally Posted by maniclion

Easy, there were explosives in the building, duh.

Posted by: HialeahChico305

Originally Posted by myCATpowerlifts

Easy, there were explosives in the building, duh.

How dare you !

Posted by: KelJu

Originally Posted by danzik17

Damn, it's been 7 years already? My brother was was involved in the design of some of the drilling and rock abrasion tools on the rovers, so I follow this stuff as well.

Which one, two rovers were sent at around the same time: spirit and opportunity. Spirit has been out of contact for a very long time, and NASA believes the unit's comm equipment is damaged, but they don't know anything for sure. They gave up on contacting the rover, so they declared the mission a success. The rover survived far longer than what the mission actually required. Opportunity is still going, and is now picking up at where spirit left off. Damn thing has been driving around drilling into rocks and shit sending data back to NASA for 7 years.

Posted by: danzik17

Originally Posted by KelJu

Both I believe - the same company designed the RAT that's on both rovers, amongst other things.

Posted by: Curt James

Originally Posted by maniclion

Look at buildings in Europe that have been there for 500+ years and now with all the technology we have our homes will be lucky to last 100 years...

What would those European buildings cost to make in today's dollars?

Is that a factor or is greed the only motivation?

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NASA rover reaches rim of big Martian crater

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