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A Mars rover  (Source: NASA)

The discovery made on the Red Planet  (Source: NASA)
The Mars rovers continue to impress

NASA this week announced its Mars Exploration Rover Spirit discovered a patch of land on Mars that revealed the possibility of a past environment able to sustain microbial life.

While exploring a scientifically important area of Mars last May, Spirit, while dragging a broken wheel on the surface, discovered a patch of "nearly pure silica" found the Home Plate section of Mars.  Scientists believe it came from a hot-spring or fumarole -- an environment which forces acidic steam to rise through cracks on the planet's surface, also stripping mineral components while leaving only silica behind.

Even though the rovers were not designed to evaluate possible signs of life, each discovery like this one provides pieces to a complicated puzzle on Mars.  Researchers hope to have the opportunity to study this specific location on Home Plate when new missions are launched to the Red Planet.  The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), scheduled to launch in September 2009, will be NASA's first chance to head back to Home Plate.

"Whichever of those conditions produced it, this concentration of silica is probably the most significant discovery by Spirit for revealing a habitable niche that existed on Mars in the past," said Steve Squyres, principal investigator for data gathered by the rovers.

Spirit now has only two weeks to safely arrive at a sun-facing slope on Home Plate before strong dust storms paralyzes it for the winter.

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A Testament to Good Engineering
By JBird7986 on 12/12/2007 10:07:12 AM , Rating: 5
Spirit and Opportunity were designed to last for 90 days and landed in early 2004. The fact that they are still going strong and making discoveries like this after nearly 4 years is an incredible engineering feat.




RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By oldhoss on 12/12/2007 10:33:45 AM , Rating: 2
Indeed...add Voyager I and II to that list. Still going strong after 30+ years. Too bad it'll take 40,000 years for them to make it to the nearest star.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By FITCamaro on 12/12/2007 10:39:24 AM , Rating: 2
Their nuclear power sources will be long since depleted. I believe Voyager 1 is already running out of power.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By oldhoss on 12/12/2007 11:03:17 AM , Rating: 3
Yeah..I believe they said they should be good to go until ~2020, at which time they should be in Interstellar space, speeding toward the Machine Planet... :-P


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By FITCamaro on 12/12/2007 12:55:45 PM , Rating: 3
No man. Voyager II will somehow form into some gigantic cloud thing that can capture star ships and then work its way back across the galaxy attempting to find its creator.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By TITAN1080 on 12/12/07, Rating: 0
By Chernobyl68 on 12/12/2007 2:59:39 PM , Rating: 2
Deltan...she was Deltan.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By Sahrin on 12/12/2007 8:37:35 PM , Rating: 2
Voyager 6 - not 2.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By Bonesdad on 12/12/2007 11:55:37 PM , Rating: 2
That's what he was talking about...the planet of machines sent Voyager 6 back the way it came in search of it's Creator...in a ship that looks like a giant "cloud". Jeez...not much of a geek are you?


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By oldhoss on 12/13/2007 11:57:43 PM , Rating: 2
lol..well said, Mr. Camaro ;)


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By LeviBeckerson (blog) on 12/12/2007 11:05:43 AM , Rating: 2
Both craft should still be functioning at well over half their original power output. They started with 470 watts and as of 2001, V2 was at around 319. I forget the number for V1, but I want to say it was 315 for some reason. Several systems were shut down to conserve the remaining fuel for as long as possible.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By MrTeal on 12/12/2007 11:43:12 AM , Rating: 3
It's not to save fuel, the fuel will decay at a constant rate no matter how much power you're using. At this point they just lack the power to run all the instruments, so they've shut down some to keep others active.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By jpmills on 12/12/2007 7:23:56 PM , Rating: 4
Currently Voyager is running on 283.9 watts as of 12/5 and Voyager 2 is running on 285.4 Watts. V1 is 31 W above minimum and V2 is 20 W above.

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/weekly-reports...


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By phattyboombatty on 12/12/07, Rating: -1
RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By MastermindX on 12/12/2007 1:04:56 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
To me a scientist that estimates that the mars rover is only supposed to last 90 days and it is still going strong three years later is incompetant and should be fired.


OMG! My microwave is only guaranteed for 90 days and it's still working after 8 years without repair!!! The engineer who designed it need to be hung!</sarcasm>

I guess that 90 days prediction was more of a minimal duration than a maximal one.

It is not because something is designed to work at least 90 days without breaking that it won't last 10 years.

I'm not an engineer, but I'm pretty sure mechanical wear is harder to evaluate than energy usage.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By Adonlude on 12/12/2007 2:23:22 PM , Rating: 3
You're microwave manufacturer doesn't spend billions of tax payer dollars nor does it need big successes and surprises to justify its spending. NASA wasn't going to give us our money back if the rovers had failed in less than 90 days, nor would they have replaced them. Excellent analogy otherwise though.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By Aiserou on 12/12/2007 4:44:29 PM , Rating: 3
There is also the fact that nobody expected the wind to clean off the solar panels so effectively. It was fully expected that after 90 days the panels would be so covered in dust that the rovers would no longer be able to function, so 90 days was given as a minimal mission time.

Also, traveling across an alien terrain via remote can be ridiculously hard. If they manage to get the rover stuck in loose dirt or something, its not like someone can just go kick it loose. Every time they move an inch, they spend hours, if not days, evaluating things like soil density, slope angle, rock size, etc.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By FITCamaro on 12/12/2007 1:08:24 PM , Rating: 5
Lets see here.....which is going to last longer.....a thing that just flies through space, taking measurements and pictures......or an incredibly complex robot that moves across an alien planet, is fueled by solar energy, and can actually interact with its surroundings taking soil samples and what not? About the only thing Voyager I and II had to worry about was getting hit with micro-meteorites or a system failing. The chances of the former happening to something so small are astronomical. Most of Spirit and Opportunities problems have been power related.

While Voyager I and II are remarkable achievements, so are the Spirit and Opportunity. Their life expectancy was only 90 days originally because NASA thought by then, their solar panels would be too covered in dirt to adequately power the robots. However, surface winds of Mars have kept the solar panels of the two relatively dust free until recently.

If Spirit and Opportunity had nuclear power cells like Voyager I and II, their lives would have been far easier since they wouldn't have to rely on whether or not the sun was up. They have to have enough power to keep their internal systems warm or they'll freeze up and stop functioning. Thats hard to do on an alien planet where we can't completely predict the weather.

So before you completely bash modern space exploration, do a little research. And I'm sure NASA would have loved to use nuclear power cells. But with all the environmental activists out there who heavily protest even the slightest bit of radioactive material from being launched into space, they weren't able to. I was in college less than an hour from KSC when those things were launched. I couldn't have cared less if they had nuclear power cells. I think the potential benefits far outweigh the risk. Especially considering that even if the rocket blew up, its not like it'd be an atom bomb going off.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By maven81 on 12/12/2007 1:30:21 PM , Rating: 2
If I remember correctly the voyager missions were not without their share of close calls either... shortly into the mission Voyager IIs main receiver failed, the computer switched to the backup, then the backup failed, and it was switched back to the primary. I think it may have went another round even... The people on the ground nearly lost contact with it, but eventually managed to solve the problem.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering
By timmiser on 12/12/2007 1:58:00 PM , Rating: 1
Well, that is exactly why they shouldn't be putting a life expectancy on any mission such as this because of the unkown factors that nobody can predict. They knew beforehand that the design of the rovers could go on indefintely and should have left it at that. The wheels turn, the solar panels recharge, the things keep going...

By saying 90 days and then saying it has been a huge and unexpected sucess because they have exceeded the original 90 day estimate, does sound hyperbolic to me.


RE: A Testament to Good Engineering