winning bet NASA.
EFE El Universal Tuesday December 30, 2008
The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity "will meet in January five years of uninterrupted work, after overcoming the vagaries of the planet and the term life of three months given to them by NASA scientists.
The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity "will meet in January five years of uninterrupted work, after overcoming the vagaries of the planet and the term life of three months given to them by NASA scientists.
On 3 January 2004, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA embraced elated with confirmation that the "Spirit" had descended on the surface of Mars. The scene was repeated 21 days later when the "Opportunity" landed on an opposite end of Mars. At that time, none of JPL scientists dared to predict that such vehicles are six independent wheels and the size of a washing machine would be working five years without major problems, except for a slight loss of computer memory and symptoms " arthritis "in its robotic arms.
"The U.S. taxpayer was informed that for each vehicle's mission was three months," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA in Washington. "But they have worked almost 20 times more. A gain in these moments of great budgetary constraints, "he said. Moreover, two months after his arrival, gave him the trophy would be expected from their mission on Mars: the proof that the planet had water in his violent past . also transmitted to Earth over 250 thousand pictures, toured more than 13 miles, climbed the mountain slopes, go down to the Martian crater and survived the harsh Martian storm that covered their solar panels and threatened to leave them without power. Although materials and equipment have begun to use fatigue and the effect of fluctuations hot 120 degrees Celsius, "the vehicles are in an operational capacity and ready to launch new campaigns," JPL said in a statement. "These vehicles are remarkably resilient considering the extreme environment that supports its materials every day," said John Callas, project manager at JPL.
vehicles and instruments found an unexpected ally for its operation on the Martian surface: violent dust storms . JPL scientists considered in establishing the three months of life, and the solar panels of "Spirit" and "Opportunity" would be covered with dust and that without sunlight, muy pronto se agotaría su energía. Más ocurrió todo lo contrario. Los vientos huracanados limpiaron los paneles y ahora la gran esperanza de los científicos es que vuelvan a soplar para dar un nuevo impulso a las ruedas de uno de ellos. "Aunque no es confiable, esa ha sido una ayuda no anticipada en la longevidad" de los dos vehículos exploradores, manifestó el laboratorio de la NASA.
Agregó que hace 18 meses que "Spirit" no recibe una "barrida" de las tormentas y sus paneles solares proporcionan apenas la energía que el vehículo necesita para sobrevivir a su tercer invierno en el hemisferio sur marciano."El último año fue extremadamente difícil. Lo sorteamos barely, "said Callas. But with the coming spring and summer, the scientists hope regarding the" Spirit "have increased and the experts and have set two points of exploration, to about 183 feet from where the car spent most of 2008.
For Opportunity, the heating problems in maintaining the permanent use of their instruments, the next destination is "Endeavour", a crater 22 kilometers in diameter and 20 times larger than the crater, "Victoria", which the rover over the past two years.
The target on Mars was much less sympathetic to the laboratory, "Phoenix" from NASA, which landed on Mars this year and three months of operations confirmed that there was water on the planet. "As expected, the reduction in sunlight (in the northern hemisphere) has left the 'Phoenix', which operated with solar batteries, no power to keep loaded" señaló.La last communication from "Phoenix" received on 2 December, through the orbiter Mars Odyssey. "
