6 ms·

It is so bad ass that when we have a question about something that happened on another planet we can just point one of our other robots' cameras at the site!

protomyth 10y ago
I'm waiting for the day where someone can tell their rover to drive / fly over and find out what the heck happened.
- dr_zoidberg 10y ago
  Opportunity is not so far (it's actually inside a crater nearby I think), but it'd take months to get to place, and there may not be enough scientific value in doing so just to see the charred remains of Schiaparelli. But who knows, it's so over it's expected mission life that maybe someone goes "f* it, let's go take a look".
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    Opportunity is very very far, yes technically it is close if you are thinking about traditional modes of transportation, but it traveled so far only about 40KM, and it's max speed is about 2 inches per second it is not going to get there.
  - mturmon 10y ago
    Opportunity tried to see the descent, but it did not work: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2016/10191525-brief-update-opportunitys.html http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2016/1019152...
    - smpetrey 10y ago
      Damn. So cosmic rays are pretty intense huh?
      - mturmon 10y ago
        Yes. Cosmic rays are a significant obstacle to any kind of automated event detection in imagery taken from space, especially outside low Earth orbit. That streak was a classic CR. Depending on the angle of incidence on the CCD, you can see different shapes.
    - michaelcampbell 10y ago
      I love reading her stuff, even if I don't understand a lot of it. Her twitter feed is fantastic.
  - elsonrodriguez 10y ago
    We're years away from landing anything that could dig a hole deeper than Schiaparelli's crater. Depending on how hard it cratered, and how soon Opportunity could get there, it could be the most important thing for Opportunity to do.
    - MrZongle2 10y ago
      Not necessarily. Schiaparelli used hydrazine for fuel, and if it smashed into the surface it seems to me that it's a reasonable assumption that the whole crash site is contaminated with it. Is that something we want to get all over the rover?
      - dr_zoidberg 10y ago
        Both are good answers... let's see what scientists decide. In te meantime, MRO should give some interesting hi-res pictures.
        MrZongle2 10y ago
        Yes! I wasn't aware that a second fly-over with a better imager was going to happen, but now I'm morbidly curious.
      - TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
        Hydrazine is extremely unstable right? Would much of it remain after slamming in to the ground?
        MrZongle2 10y ago
        With a bit more Googling, it appears that hydrazine's lifetime in (Earth) atmosphere is measured in hours. I'm not sure what that would be on Mars, or if soaking into the soil there would increase its lifetime. It's a fun mental exercise, I guess -- I'd love to hear from somebody in the field who knew more about hydrazine -- but as the Opportunity rover is still a long (likely impossible) distance away from the crash site, it will likely just remain a mental exercise.
- beamatronic 10y ago
  We have proven designs for Mars rovers, and a proven delivery system. The R&D has been done, the infrastructure is in place - why don't we send some more? We should be able to make incremental updates and constantly improve the rovers capabilities.
  - mturmon 10y ago
    That's pretty much what we have done: http://imgur.com/3Hg9O http://imgur.com/3Hg9O (Pathfinder, Spirit/Opportunity, Curiosity). Mars2020 isn't designed yet, but it will be based on Curiosity.
    - mastazi 10y ago
      Thank you, that is actually a great picture! Most pictures of the rovers fail to depict the difference in size between Sojourner (the Pathfinder rover), Spirit/Opportunity and Curiosity which is the largest to date. Besides rovers, on the surface there are also several landers, sent by USA, USSR, UK and ESA. A complete list of human made objects landed on extra terrestrial bodies is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_landings_on_extraterrestrial_bodies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_landings_on_extraterre... I suspect the above link just made someone's week end ;-) UPDATE On a separate note, it would be very interesting if future (manned or unmanned) missions could visit artifacts sent by previous missions and assess their state / decay over time. The only example that I know of is Surveyor 3 (moon unmanned lander) which was visited by the Apollo 12 mission a couple of years later. For some reason, my dream is one day to be able to travel to Mars and visit Spirit in its final resting place at Troy[1]. [1] http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA12205 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA12205
    - photogrammetry 10y ago
      Mars 2020 is designed yet, you can view its design and experiments here: http://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ http://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ Sure, it may not be fully officially built, but it has been designed almost to completion.
      - 10y ago

protomyth 10y ago

I'm waiting for the day where someone can tell their rover to drive / fly over and find out what the heck happened.

dr_zoidberg 10y ago
Opportunity is not so far (it's actually inside a crater nearby I think), but it'd take months to get to place, and there may not be enough scientific value in doing so just to see the charred remains of Schiaparelli. But who knows, it's so over it's expected mission life that maybe someone goes "f* it, let's go take a look".
- dogma1138 10y ago
  Opportunity is very very far, yes technically it is close if you are thinking about traditional modes of transportation, but it traveled so far only about 40KM, and it's max speed is about 2 inches per second it is not going to get there.
- mturmon 10y ago
  Opportunity tried to see the descent, but it did not work: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2016/10191525-brief-update-opportunitys.html http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2016/1019152...
  - smpetrey 10y ago
    Damn. So cosmic rays are pretty intense huh?
    - mturmon 10y ago
      Yes. Cosmic rays are a significant obstacle to any kind of automated event detection in imagery taken from space, especially outside low Earth orbit. That streak was a classic CR. Depending on the angle of incidence on the CCD, you can see different shapes.
  - michaelcampbell 10y ago
    I love reading her stuff, even if I don't understand a lot of it. Her twitter feed is fantastic.
- elsonrodriguez 10y ago
  We're years away from landing anything that could dig a hole deeper than Schiaparelli's crater. Depending on how hard it cratered, and how soon Opportunity could get there, it could be the most important thing for Opportunity to do.
  - MrZongle2 10y ago
    Not necessarily. Schiaparelli used hydrazine for fuel, and if it smashed into the surface it seems to me that it's a reasonable assumption that the whole crash site is contaminated with it. Is that something we want to get all over the rover?
    - dr_zoidberg 10y ago
      Both are good answers... let's see what scientists decide. In te meantime, MRO should give some interesting hi-res pictures.
      - MrZongle2 10y ago
        Yes! I wasn't aware that a second fly-over with a better imager was going to happen, but now I'm morbidly curious.
    - TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
      Hydrazine is extremely unstable right? Would much of it remain after slamming in to the ground?
      - MrZongle2 10y ago
        With a bit more Googling, it appears that hydrazine's lifetime in (Earth) atmosphere is measured in hours. I'm not sure what that would be on Mars, or if soaking into the soil there would increase its lifetime. It's a fun mental exercise, I guess -- I'd love to hear from somebody in the field who knew more about hydrazine -- but as the Opportunity rover is still a long (likely impossible) distance away from the crash site, it will likely just remain a mental exercise.
beamatronic 10y ago
We have proven designs for Mars rovers, and a proven delivery system. The R&D has been done, the infrastructure is in place - why don't we send some more? We should be able to make incremental updates and constantly improve the rovers capabilities.
- mturmon 10y ago
  That's pretty much what we have done: http://imgur.com/3Hg9O http://imgur.com/3Hg9O (Pathfinder, Spirit/Opportunity, Curiosity). Mars2020 isn't designed yet, but it will be based on Curiosity.
  - mastazi 10y ago
    Thank you, that is actually a great picture! Most pictures of the rovers fail to depict the difference in size between Sojourner (the Pathfinder rover), Spirit/Opportunity and Curiosity which is the largest to date. Besides rovers, on the surface there are also several landers, sent by USA, USSR, UK and ESA. A complete list of human made objects landed on extra terrestrial bodies is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_landings_on_extraterrestrial_bodies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_landings_on_extraterre... I suspect the above link just made someone's week end ;-) UPDATE On a separate note, it would be very interesting if future (manned or unmanned) missions could visit artifacts sent by previous missions and assess their state / decay over time. The only example that I know of is Surveyor 3 (moon unmanned lander) which was visited by the Apollo 12 mission a couple of years later. For some reason, my dream is one day to be able to travel to Mars and visit Spirit in its final resting place at Troy[1]. [1] http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA12205 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA12205
  - photogrammetry 10y ago
    Mars 2020 is designed yet, you can view its design and experiments here: http://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ http://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ Sure, it may not be fully officially built, but it has been designed almost to completion.
    - 10y ago