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Mars rover Spirit leaves lander platform! :beer;

Wow it really took this long ?

EDIT>> What wild ones they are:
JPL engineers played Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out" in the control room as they watched new images confirming that the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully rolled off its lander
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W00t! really, I think that not enough people show even the slightest amount of caring for this. It is really a huge feat for it to even be there.
 
Of course it's a huge feat. Pointing that thing towards Mars from 7 months away was a huge feat itself.

Anyone know how long it takes for images to be shot back to earth ?
 
Yay! When are they going to find the vast quantities of gold and diamonds that leads to the Mars gold rush? 😀
 
Originally posted by: rh71
Of course it's a huge feat. Pointing that thing towards Mars from 7 months away was a huge feat itself.

Anyone know how long it takes for images to be shot back to earth ?
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Understand then that they are in risk management mode. They took so long to drive off the platform because 1) they had plenty of time (rover was collecting surplus energy) 2) Rover is designed to last for months 3) they were testing out their egress path on a simulation model 4) needed time to get panaramic pics anyways.

Here is a quote from a previous press release that will give you some indication of bandwidth.

The rover's status overall is "pretty darn perfect," said Amador. He described the communication link from Mars to Earth as excellent, allowing the team to receive 170 megabits of data during the past day. All science data stored on the rover has been sent to Earth. The rover is generating 900 watt-hours of power per day and using 750 watt-hours, and its thermal condition is good, he added.

While engineers are completing and testing commands to execute the rover's turn and egress, the science team is enjoying an "unexpected dividend" of time to collect data, said Dr. John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover science manager at JPL.

Until now, all science observations have been planned far in advance, but the unfolding schedule of rover activities gave the team the opportunity to do their first on-the-fly planning for observations driven by previous results, Callas explained. In doing so they segued to a working style that they will practice on a day to day basis as the rover rolls across the surface of its landing site in Gusev Crater, named the Columbia Memorial Station.

In the next 24 hours, the team will collect 270 megabits of science data, considerably more than on any previous martian day. This will include a high-quality, 14-color mosaic taken by the panoramic camera of a third of the horizon toward Sleepy Hollow, the direction in which the rover will leave its lander.
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Originally posted by: Rufio
Originally posted by: deftron
What's the difference between this lander and the one they had a while back ?
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this one isn't in pieces!!!
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i think he means the one before the one that crashed into mars;
the sojourner was it? it landed on mars, beamed back pictures, but it had an extremely limited scope and was shut down really soon, cause all it did was roll off the rover, dig into a rock to get information, and switch off. that was literally it if i remember right.

someone wanna correct me if i'm not?
 
Originally posted by: zimu
Originally posted by: Rufio
Originally posted by: deftron
What's the difference between this lander and the one they had a while back ?
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this one isn't in pieces!!!
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i think he means the one before the one that crashed into mars;
the sojourner was it? it landed on mars, beamed back pictures, but it had an extremely limited scope and was shut down really soon, cause all it did was roll off the rover, dig into a rock to get information, and switch off. that was literally it if i remember right.

someone wanna correct me if i'm not?
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The pathfinder mission was a combination of proof of concept and science/information gathering mission. It was essentially a smaller version of the current mission design, and the rover had limited power production.



Spacecraft
Launch: December 4, 1996
Landing: July 4, 1997
Mass: 895 kilograms (1,973 pounds) at launch, fueled
Science instruments: Imager; Magnets for measuring magnetic properties of soil; Wind socks; Atmospheric structure instrument/meteorology package

Rover
Mass: 10.6 kilograms (23 pounds)
Science instruments: Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer, three Cameras (also technology experiments)

Overview

Mars Pathfinder was originally designed as a technology demonstration of a way to deliver an instrumented lander and a free-ranging robotic rover to the surface of the red planet. Pathfinder not only accomplished this goal but also returned an unprecedented amount of data and outlived its primary design life.

Mars Pathfinder used an innovative method of directly entering the Martian atmosphere, assisted by a parachute to slow its descent through the thin Martian atmosphere and a giant system of airbags to cushion the impact. The landing site, an ancient flood plain in Mars? northern hemisphere known as Ares Vallis, is among the rockiest parts of Mars. It was chosen because scientists believed it to be a relatively safe surface to land on and one which contained a wide variety of rocks deposited during a catastrophic flood.

The lander, formally named the Carl Sagan Memorial Station following its successful touchdown, and the rover, named Sojourner after American civil rights crusader Sojourner Truth, both outlived their design lives ? the lander by nearly three times, and the rover by 12 times.

From landing until the final data transmission on September 27, 1997, Mars Pathfinder returned 2.3 billion bits of information, including more than 16,500 images from the lander and 550 images from the rover, as well as more than 15 chemical analyses of rocks and soil and extensive data on winds and other weather factors. Findings from the investigations carried out by scientific instruments on both the lander and the rover suggest that Mars was at one time in its past warm and wet, with water existing in its liquid state and a thicker atmosphere.
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Plus, this one is HUGE!!! I didn't realize the size of the thing until seeing the Daily Show interview a NASA Mars expert. Isn't it close to 5' tall?
 
Originally posted by: Beller0ph1
Plus, this one is HUGE!!! I didn't realize the size of the thing until seeing the Daily Show interview a NASA Mars expert. Isn't it close to 5' tall?
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The stereo-cameras are elevated at about 5.5 feet high. I think the platform of solar panels are about 3 feet high.
 
Wasn't there a thread earlier by some dude who hoped that it broke a wheel or something? I hope this proves him/her wrong. w00t for NASA!
 
Originally posted by: MBony
Wasn't there a thread earlier by some dude who hoped that it broke a wheel or something? I hope this proves him/her wrong. w00t for NASA!
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naggynaggyboy posted that thread.
 
Originally posted by: Rufio
Originally posted by: MBony
Wasn't there a thread earlier by some dude who hoped that it broke a wheel or something? I hope this proves him/her wrong. w00t for NASA!
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naggynaggyboy posted that thread.
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Nice to see he is proven wrong.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
How the &%^^$ do they control that thing from the other side of the universe? Freaking amazing.
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They shout really, really loud.

(BTW... it's not the other side of the universe... nor the other side of the galaxy... in fact, it's not even on the other side of the solar system. Sense of proportion aside, however, I agree: freaking amazing.)
 
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