January 2004 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Better news
by Patrick Wiggins 24 Jan '04

24 Jan '04

Mood at the news conference that's going on now is decidedly more upbeat with the lander's "medical" condition being raised from critical to serious. They believe they have a handle on what is wrong (something to do with computer memory) and expressed confidence that they can work around the problem. However, it may take "about 3 weeks" to work it all out. Of particular interest to me was news that they were able to successfully command the computer to shut down. They have not been able to do that since the problem started which meant that the batteries have been discharging much faster than normal. While power from the solar panels will operate the craft during the day, without battery power the heaters will not operate at night subjecting certain critical systems to huge temperature swings which could cause things to physically break. Now that the computer can be shut down again the rover can again recharge batteries by day and temperatures can be maintained at night. Landing of the second MER is set for 10:05 pm MST tonight (Saturday). Patrick

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Tonight's planned events
by Patrick Wiggins 24 Jan '04

24 Jan '04

In an effort to make my coverage here tonight be a bit more tidy than for the first landing I'm going to provide now a list of the events we expect to see. Then as NASA TV reports a given event has occurred my message to the list will be very short (e.g.. "parachute open"). So, here's what we expect to see ("L" = abut 10:05 p.m. MST): Entry Turn Starts: L - 91 min. Entry Turn Completed By L - 77 min Cruise Stage Separation: L - 21 min Atmospheric Entry: L - 6 min, altitude 120 km Parachute Deployment: L - 113 sec, altitude 8.6 km, speed 472 km/hr Heatshield Separation: L - 93 sec Lander Starts Down Bridal: L - 83 sec Radar Ground Acquisition: L - 35 sec, 2.4 km above ground Descent Images Acquired: L - 30 sec, 2.0 km above ground L - 22 sec, 1.4 km above ground L - 26 sec, 1.7 km above ground Start Airbag Inflation: L - 8 sec, 284m above ground Retro-Rocket Firing: L - 6 sec, 134m, 82 km/hr Bridle Cut: L - 3 sec, 10 m above ground Landing: Entry + 354 sec Bounces, Rolls Up to 1 km Roll Stop: Landing + 10 min Airbags Retracted: L + 66 min Petals Opened: L + 96 min to L + 187 min During today's press conferences on NASA TV several comments have been made to the effect that in view of the problems with the first lander, tonight they will be taking it slow on getting any images back. In fact, one guy said it could be as much as 22 hours. So we should not expect to see images as quickly as we did with MER A. Patrick

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Hubble humor
by Patrick Wiggins 24 Jan '04

24 Jan '04

A friend who works with Hubble tells me there's s joke going around which has them printing up bumper stickers that read FOUR LESS YEARS OF BUSH, FOUR MORE YEARS OF HUBBLE Patrick :-)

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Hubble humor
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 24 Jan '04

24 Jan '04

Patrick, I'd like one of those bumper stickers! Debbie

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Spirit imaged from Mars orbit
by Patrick Wiggins 24 Jan '04

24 Jan '04

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040123a.html Patrick

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NASA TV schedule
by Patrick Wiggins 24 Jan '04

24 Jan '04

Here's the NATA TV schedule for today and tomorrow. Note that the ties listed at EASTERN January 24, Saturday 3 - 4 p.m. - Opportunity Landing Update - JPL 5 - 6 p.m. MER Briefing - JPL 7 - 8 p.m. - Briefing: "Fireside Chat" with Administrator O'Keefe and JPL Director Dr. Charles Elachi - JPL 10:30 p.m. - Opportunity Mission Coverage and Commentary - JPL January 25, Sunday 1:30 - 2:30 a.m. - Opportunity News Briefing - JPL 2:45 - 3:30 a.m. - Commentary: Odyssey Pass - JPL 3:45 - 4:30 a.m. - Commentary: Opportunity - JPL 5 - 6 a.m. - Opportunity News Briefing - JPL 6:30 - 10:30 a.m. - Live Interviews on the "Opportunity" Landing - JPL 1:15 - 1:45 p.m. - Commentary: Opportunity (mgs VHF Pass) - JPL 4 - 5 p.m. - Briefing: Opportunity Odyssey Pass - JPL 5:30 - 9:30 p.m. - Live Interviews - JPL 9:30 p.m. - Commentary - JPL Sources of NASA TV on the web http://www1.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html NASA TV is also on Dish Network channel 213, and some DirecTV systems have it at channel 376. Patrick

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Encouraging news
by Patrick Wiggins 23 Jan '04

23 Jan '04

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20040123d.html Patrick

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Good news
by Patrick Wiggins 23 Jan '04

23 Jan '04

January 23, 2004 Mars Exploration Rover Updated Mission Status The flight team for NASA's Spirit received data from the rover in a communication session that began at 13:26 Universal Time (6:26 a.m. MST) and lasted 20 minutes at a data rate of 120 bits per second. Continued at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20040123b.html Patrick

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SPIRIT UPDATE: - Jan 22, 2004, 6:00 pm MST
by Patrick Wiggins 22 Jan '04

22 Jan '04

Engineers are preparing to listen for signals and possibly send commands to restore normal communication with the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit during the martian day that begins about 4 a.m. MST Friday.

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Mars update
by Patrick Wiggins 22 Jan '04

22 Jan '04

Earlier today I had the opportunity to participate in a conference call which included several NASA/JPL officials. I was encouraged when they answered my questions to the effect that 1) There is limited contact with the rover; 2) The rover is in "safe mode"; 3) The rover is commandable; 4) They are far from giving up. In fact, although subdued, they were quite up beat. So while there's no denying there is a serious problem, the situation is not as bad as some media report would have us believe. I was assured that should anything happen before tomorrow's 11:00 a.m. news conference they would email me. Should that happen I'll be sure and pass the info on here. Patrick

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