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Rover To Get Lube Job?
"Spirit's right front wheel is having arthritis problems," says Firouz Naderi, Mars Exploration Program Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. He adds with humor, "Just like a car on Earth has to go in for a 30,000-mile check-up, Spirit is coming up on its 3,000-meter checkup, and probably needs a lube job-but no tire rotation this time!"
"Lube job coming right up! Over the next few weeks, engineers will be studying whether, by heating up the lubricant in the wheel, the problem may be eliminated. Even if not, the rover is fully able to drive on five, and, jokes Naderi, maybe even on three . . . so long as they're not all on the same side.
Extra-credit science, even with a challenged wheel Both rovers successfully accomplished their 90-day primary missions, and are still performing well. In fact, the rovers seem to be so healthy overall that engineers even contemplate that, as winter comes to the rovers' landing sites, they might be able to put them in "hibernation," and even revive them in the spring. That would be quite a feat, and no one is quite sure it's possible, but you can't blame the optimism of a team who has met with such success.
The rovers perform beyond their mission-success requirements Meanwhile, Opportunity is peering farther back into martian history with each layer in the wall of Endurance Crater it studies. Both rovers have found hematite, a mineral that often forms in the presence of water, and scientists have confirmed that water once soaked Opportunity's landing site area in Meridiani Planum.
Unimagined success: a rover capable of climbing around mountains and another down into craters Mars, says Naderi with the firmness of one who understands the risks, is not about base camps. But, shaking his head in a bit of relaxed wonder, he adds, "In my wildest dreams, I never imagined we'd have one rover actually capable of climbing around mountains, and another descending down slopes into deep craters."
Enjoying every day on Mars past the rovers' 90-day "warranty" "This mission is everything we've ever wanted. Each day, we move the rovers a little farther, putting new terrain and new potential discoveries right in front of their 'noses.'" Involved in Mars missions since the Viking days in the 1970s and early '80s, when two orbiters and static landers conducted intensive scientific studies of Mars, Lee has spent a career waiting for the technological capability of roving into unseen territory, literally peering around the next bend, over the next horizon. As enthusiastic as they are about the rovers' successes, both Naderi and Lee know that each additional day past the initial 90-day "warranty" is a gift to the team and all who continue to follow the mission. "Any day," says Naderi, "we're aware that something critical could break. Until then, we're going to have fun as engineers finding ways to work around problems like the one with Spirit's wheel, while delighting in the new discoveries that come each day." Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Analysis End Not In Sight For Mars Rovers by Phil Berardelli Washington DC (UPI) Jul 6, 2004 At a NASA-sponsored briefing for journalists last December, scientists with the Mars Exploration Rover missions described the various hazards that could cut short the planned, twin 90 (Earth) day operations on the red planet and limit the amount of data shipped home by the robotic vehicles from their respective landing sites.
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