• Mars rover Opportunity back in action after glitch

    NASA / JPL

    NASA's twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have now spent nine years on the surface of Mars.

    By Mike Wall, SPACE.com

    NASA's venerable Mars rover Opportunity has overcome a glitch that put the robot into standby mode late last month, agency officials announced Wednesday.

    "The Opportunity rover is back under ground control, executing a sequence of commands sent by the rover team," NASA officials wrote in a mission update today. "Opportunity is no longer in standby automode and has resumed normal operations."

    Opportunity apparently put itself into standby automode — in which it maintains power balance but waits for instructions from the ground — on April 22, after sensing a problem during a routine camera check, mission officials said.

    The nine-year-old rover's handlers didn't notice the problem until April 27, when Opportunity got back in touch after a nearly three-week communications moratorium caused because Mars and Earth were on opposite sides of the sun from each other.

    This planetary alignment, known as a Mars solar conjunction, occurs every 26 months and affects all spacecraft operating at the Red Planet. The sun can damage or degrade signals sent from Earth, so mission controllers generally stop commanding Mars rovers, orbiters and landers for a spell.

    Opportunity's controllers prepared a new set of commands on April 29 designed to get things back to normal, and the fix has apparently worked.

    The golf-cart-size Opportunity rover landed on Mars in January 2004 along with its twin, Spirit, on a three-month mission to search for signs of past water activity on the Red Planet. The two rovers found plenty of such evidence, and then kept trundling across the Red Planet. Spirit was declared dead in 2010, but Opportunity is still going strong.

    Opportunity is currently exploring a spot along the rim of Mars' Endeavour Crater that may have been capable of supporting life long ago.

    To date, the rover has covered 22.15 miles (35.65 kilometers) on Mars — just off the record for greatest distance traveled on the surface of another world by a robot. The Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 rover covered 23 miles (37 km) on the moon in 1973.

    Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

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  • Mars rover Opportunity puts itself in standby mode

    NASA/JPL

    NASA's twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have now spent nine years on the surface of Mars.

    By Mike Wall, SPACE.com

    NASA's long-lived Opportunity Mars rover has gone into a self-imposed standby mode on the Red Planet, the robot's handlers say.

    Mission controllers for Opportunity, which landed on Mars in January 2004, first learned of the issue on Saturday. On that day, the rover got back in touch after a nearly three-week communication moratorium caused by an unfavorable planetary alignment called a Mars solar conjunction, in which Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the sun.

    The Opportunity rover apparently put itself into standby on April 22 after sensing a problem during a routine camera check, mission managers said.

    "Our current suspicion is that Opportunity rebooted its flight software, possibly while the cameras on the mast were imaging the sun," Opportunity project manager John Callas, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., explained in a statement Monday.

    "We found the rover in a standby state called automode, in which it maintains power balance and communication schedules, but waits for instructions from the ground," Callas added. "We crafted our solar conjunction plan to be resilient to this kind of rover reset, if it were to occur."

    Opportunity's handlers prepared new commands Monday designed to spur the rover into resuming operations, mission team members said.

    The golf-cart-size Opportunity landed on Mars more than nine years ago along with its twin, Spirit, on a three-month mission to search for signs of past water activity on the Red Planet. The two rovers found plenty of such evidence, and then kept trundling across Mars. Spirit was declared dead in 2010, but Opportunity is still going strong.

    Mars solar conjunctions occur every 26 months, so Opportunity's team knows how to weather them. This most recent conjunction, in fact, is the fifth that the rover has endured.

    Mars solar conjunctions affect NASA's entire fleet of robotic Red Planet explorers. Mission controllers resumed sending commands to the agency's venerable Mars Odyssey orbiter Monday and plan to do the same with the Mars rover Curiosity on Wednesday (May 1), officials said.

    Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

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  • Mars rover resumes rock analysis after glitch

    © Nasa / Reuters

    NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, shown on Feb. 3, 2013, resumed its work on Monday.

    Reuters

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — NASA's Mars rover Curiosity resumed analysis of a sample of rock powder following a computer glitch that suspended operations for a week, scientists said on Monday.

    Before the computer problem, results radioed back to Earth revealed that the rock, located near Curiosity's Gale Crater landing site, contains all the chemical ingredients necessary for microbial life, the over-arching goal of the planned two-year mission.

    Scientists are eager for additional information about the rock sample, which was drilled out from what appears to be a slab of bedrock in an area known as Yellowknife Bay.

    Curiosity automatically suspended its work on March 17 when it detected a problem with a computer data file. The glitch occurred as the rover was recovering from an earlier, unrelated computer problem.

    The unplanned work hiatus ended over the weekend, NASA's deputy project manager Jim Erickson said.

    "It's a slow recovery process, but we're back doing science," Erickson said.

    Analysis of the rock powder will continue for about another week. Beginning April 4, radio communications between Earth and Mars will be blocked by the sun for a month, suspending most of the rover's science operations again.

    When the planets re-align for communications after May 1, scientists plan to drill a second hole into the rock to verify the early results and look more closely for signs of organic carbon.

    The $2.5 billion rover landed on Mars on Aug. 6 to assess if the planet most like Earth has or ever had the chemical ingredients and environments for microbial life.

    Scientists eventually plan to drive the rover to a 3-mile high mound of what appears to be layered sediment rising from the floor of Gale Crater.

    (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp 

  • Computer glitch suspends NASA Mars rover operation

    REUTERS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Handout

    Self-portrait of the rover Curiosity, combining dozens of exposures taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 177th Martian day, or sol, is seen in this February 3, 2013 NASA image.

    By Irene Klotz, Reuters

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — A computer glitch, possibly caused by radiation, has put on hold the Mars rover Curiosity's first attempt to analyze powder from inside an ancient rock, officials said on Monday.

    Engineers said they hope the NASA rover can resume limited science operations this week.

    "I don't expect there to be any long-term impact," project manager Richard Cook told Reuters. But "it's probably too early to tell."

    The $2.5 billion robotic geology station was in the middle of analyzing its first samples drilled out from the interior of a rock when its primary computer developed a problem on Wednesday.

    The craft transmitted the results of four onboard laboratory tests to ground controllers before science operations were suspended, Cook said.

    The rover landed inside the Gale Crater impact basin, located near the Martian equator, on Aug. 6, 2012, for a two-year mission to see if the planet most like Earth in the solar system has or ever had the chemistry and conditions to support microbial life.

    Engineers over the weekend switched the rover to its identical backup computer system.

    On Monday Curiosity was beginning to emerge from the shutdown of all but essential systems following the electronic brain transplant. Meanwhile, troubleshooting on the faulty computer system is under way.

    "We plan to do a couple of more checkouts on the original computer, probably on Wednesday," Cook said.

    The problem is in a flash memory system and may have been the result of a radiation hit, he added.

    "If I were to guess the most likely cause, that would be it," Cook said.

    Engineers want to restore Curiosity's damaged computer system so that it can be returned to service as a backup. The rover had been using its A-side computer system since before landing.

    The B-side system, now in operation, was last used during Curiosity's nine-month cruise from Earth to Mars.

    Results of the rover's chemical analysis of the rock sample remain set for release on March 12, lead scientist John Grotzinger wrote in an email to Reuters.

    Scientists chose the rock in part because it is shot through with what appear to be minerals that form in the presence of water. Water is believed to be necessary for life.

    (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp 

  • In a first, Curiosity's rover drills into Martian bedrock, collects samples

    NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has drilled a hole into the surface of the planet and is collecting samples of the powdery results for analysis. NBC's Lester Holt reports.

    By Mike Wall, Space.com

    NASA's Curiosity rover has drilled into a Martian rock and collected samples, marking the first time any robot has ever performed this complicated maneuver on the surface of another planet.

    The 1-ton Curiosity rover used its arm-mounted drill to bore a hole 0.63 inches (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) deep in a section of sedimentary bedrock on Friday. The activity paves the way for the first-ever analysis of fresh Martian subsurface material and provides the last major checkout of the robot's gear and instruments, researchers said.

    "The most advanced planetary robot ever designed now is a fully operating analytical laboratory on Mars," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement Saturday. "This is the biggest milestone accomplishment for the Curiosity team since the sky-crane landing last August, another proud day for America."

    Curiosity will process the sample over the next few days, researchers said. The rover will use some of the material to scour its sample-handling hardware clean of any residues that may remain from Earth before transferring any powder to the analytical instruments on the rover's body. [Curiosity Rover's Amazing Mars Photos]

    "We'll take the powder we acquired and swish it around to scrub the internal surfaces of the drill bit assembly," said Curiosity drill systems engineer Scott McCloskey, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "Then we'll use the arm to transfer the powder out of the drill into the scoop, which will be our first chance to see the acquired sample."

    NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

    At the center of this image from NASA's Curiosity rover is the hole in a rock called "John Klein" where the rover conducted its first sample drilling on Mars. The drilling took place on Feb. 8.

    Drilling so deep into a Red Planet rock is a complex and unprecedented maneuver, so the mission team worked its way up to the first effort in a steady, stepwise fashion.

    About two weeks ago, Curiosity began assessing the target rock, which is part of an outcrop called "John Klein" that was exposed to liquid water long ago. The rover first pressed down on the rock with its arm-mounted drill in a series of "pre-load" tests. It then used the drill's percussive action to hammer the outcrop without spinning the drill bit, which cleared the way for a recent "mini-drill" that bored into rock but didn't collect samples.

    Getting Curiosity ready for all these steps — and for yesterday's successful full-up drilling run — also took a lot of prep work here on Earth, researchers said.

    "Building a tool to interact forcefully with unpredictable rocks on Mars required an ambitious development and testing program," said JPL's Louise Jandura, chief engineer for Curiosity's sample system said Saturday. "To get to the point of making this hole in a rock on Mars, we made eight drills and bored more than 1,200 holes in 20 types of rock on Earth."

    Curiosity landed inside Mars' huge Gale Crater on the night of Aug. 5 to determine if the area has ever been capable of supporting microbial life. Along with its 10 science instruments and 17 cameras, the rover's drill is considered key to this quest, for it allows scientists to peer deep into Martian rocks for evidence of past habitability. 

    Follow Space.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. 

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  • NASA rover Opportunity begins 10th year on Mars

    NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.

    As NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity neared the ninth anniversary of its landing on Mars, the rover was working in the 'Matijevic Hill' area seen in this view from Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam). Images for this mosaic obtained Nov. 19 to Dec. 3, 2012.

    By Mike Wall, SPACE.com

    The older, smaller cousin of NASA's huge Mars rover Curiosity is quietly celebrating a big milestone Thursday — nine years on the surface of the Red Planet.

    NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars the night of Jan. 24, 2004 PST (just after midnight EST on Jan. 25), three weeks after its twin, Spirit, touched down. Spirit stopped operating in 2010, but Opportunity is still going strong, helping scientists better understand the Red Planet's wetter, warmer past.

    "No one could've imagined how good the exploration and scientific discovery would be for this vehicle, looking from the perspective of nine years ago," said John Callas, Opportunity's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's been a phenomenal accomplishment."

    The headline-stealing Curiosity rover, for its part, touched down on Aug. 5, 2012, marking the next step in Mars exploration. The car-size Curiosity weighs about 1 ton — five times more than either Spirit or Opportunity.

    Long-lived rovers
    Spirit and Opportunity were originally supposed to spend three months searching for evidence of past water activity on the Red Planet. The golf-cart-size robots found plenty of such signs at their separate landing sites, showing that Mars was not always the cold and arid planet we know today. [ Most Amazing Discoveries by Spirit and Opportunity ]

    For example, in 2007 Spirit uncovered an ancient hydrothermal system in Gusev Crater, suggesting that two key ingredients for life as we know it — liquid water and an energy source — were both present in some parts of Mars long ago.

    And Opportunity is currently inspecting clay deposits along the rim of Mars' huge Endeavour Crater. Clays form in relatively neutral (as opposed to acidic or basic) water, so the area may once have been capable of supporting primitive microbial life, researchers say.

    "This is our first glimpse ever at conditions on ancient Mars that clearly show us a chemistry that would've been suitable for life at the Opportunity site," Opportunity principal investigator Steve Squyres, of Cornell University, said of the discovery at a conference last month.

    The rovers rolled far beyond their 90-day warranties. Spirit finally stopped communicating with Earth in March 2010, after getting mired in soft sand and failing to maneuver into a position that would allow it to slant its solar panels toward the sun over the 2009-2010 Martian winter. NASA declared the rover dead in 2011.

    ut Opportunity keeps chugging along. It has put 22.03 miles (35.46 kilometers) on its odometer since landing on Mars — just 1 mile (1.6 km) off the all-time record for most ground covered on the surface of another world. The Soviet Union's unmanned Lunokhod 2 rover holds that mark, traveling 23 miles (37 km) on the moon back in 1973.

    The great engineering that allowed Spirit and Opportunity to keep roving for so long is a big part of the six-wheeled robots' legacy, mission team members say.

    "These are magnificently designed machines," Callas told SPACE.com. "We really have greatly expanded the exploration envelope by having a vehicle that can not only last so long but stay in very good health over that time, such that we can continue exploring."

    Still in good health
    While Opportunity is showing signs of its advanced age, such as an arthritic robotic arm, the rover remains in good shape overall.

    "Its health right now is miraculously good," Callas said.

    Still, the rover team is treating every day as a gift at this point, knowing that Opportunity could conk out at pretty much any time. Indeed, the sun will rise one day without a message from Opportunity, and its handlers will have to face the rover's death and the end of an amazing mission.

    "It's going to be hard; it'll be the end of a great era," Callas said. "But we'll have to remember that we've had such a good run."

    Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

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  • Mars Curiosity's tracks seen from space

    NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

    This image, taken by the HiRise camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the Curiosity rover's tracks on the Red Planet through Jan. 2, 2013. Curiosity's landing site is the dark smudge at left; the rover is visible as a bright speck amid the light-colored terrain toward the right of the image.

    By Mike Wall, SPACE.com

    The Red Planet ramblings of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity are clearly visible in a new image snapped by a sharp-eyed spacecraft.

    The rover photo, taken on Jan. 2 by the HiRise camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the ground Curiosity has covered since landing inside the Red Planet's huge Gale Crater in August 2012.

    Curiosity's touchdown site, dubbed "Bradbury Landing" in honor of the late sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, appears at the left of the photo as a dark smudge — a scar left by the rocket-powered sky crane that lowered the 1-ton rover to the Martian surface on cables in a daring and unprecedented maneuver.

    The photo shows Curiosity's meandering path toward its current location, a shallow depression known as Yellowknife Bay. The six-wheeled robot — which has put about 2,300 feet (700 meters) on its odometer during its first five months on Mars — is visible as a bright speck toward the image's right, researchers said. [Latest Mars Photos from the Curiosity Rover]

    "The tracks are not seen where the rover has recently driven over the lighter-toned surface, which may be more indurated than the darker soil," HiRise principal investigator Alfred McEwen, of the University of Arizona, wrote in a description accompanying the new image.

    Curiosity's primary mission is to determine if the Gale Crater area has ever been capable of supporting microbial life. The rover carries 17 cameras and 10 different science instruments to aid this quest.

    Curiosity has already rolled through an ancient streambed where ankle-deep water flowed in the distant past, and it has spotted many other signs of long-ago exposure to liquid water in the Yellowknife Bay area.

    The mission team is currently gearing up to use Curiosity's drill for the first time. In the next two weeks or so, they plan to bore into a rock in a Yellowknife Bay outcrop called "John Klein." Curiosity's drill will allow scientists to peer 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) into rock, deeper than any Mars rover has gone before.

    While Curiosity has found plenty of interesting deposits close to its landing site, the robot's ultimate destination is the base of Mount Sharp, the mysterious 3.4-mile-high (5.5 kilometers) mountain that rises from Gale Crater's center.

    The many layers of Mount Sharp preserve a record of Mars' changing environmental conditions over time, and Curiosity scientists hope to read this history as the rover climbs up through the mound's foothills.

    Curiosity will likely head toward the targeted Mount Sharp deposits, which are located about 6 miles (10 km) away, after the rover wraps up its drilling operations in Yellowknife Bay, mission scientists have said.

    Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

     

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