
Mars Opportunity rover is in danger of dying from a dust storm - rbanffy
https://www.engadget.com/2018/06/11/mars-opportunity-rover-minimal-power-mode-dust-storm/
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neuronic
This thing is nothing short of marvellous. It survived the harsh Martian
environment for 15 years with an expected mission span of 90 days (!).

Whenever Opportunity takes its last Ampere, it will do so after accomplishing
several magnitudes more than it was designed for.

Would not wonder one bit if this tank of a rover keeps going another couple of
years.

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planteen
Certainly an engineering marvel. However I feel like the 90 day initial "goal"
was to ensure to set the bar low so the mission could be declared a success.

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astrodust
It's an over-engineering marvel. The 90 day goal was probably to keep congress
from losing their shit and shutting down NASA if it only lasted 91 days due to
a freak accident.

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ligature23
> The rover has proved hardier than expected by lasting nearly 15 years,
> despite being designed for a 90-day mission.

It'll be fine :D

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roesel
Relevant XKCD: [https://xkcd.com/1504/](https://xkcd.com/1504/)

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vidanay
V'ger ain't got nothin' on O'tunity

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dsfyu404ed
I wonder if the rotary abrasion tool could be used to do double duty by
putting the arm in the right position and spinning the tool at the right speed
for harmonics to shake the panels enough to clear them off (provided the rover
is on an incline).

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nullsmack
I wonder if a satellite that would collect and beam down solar energy using
microwaves would help future rovers eventually. Maybe NASA wouldn't do that in
fear of the beam damaging something they want to study.

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creatornator
There's not much atmosphere on Mars (approx. 0.6% of Earth's) to get in the
way of the sun, so there's not much advantage to beaming down solar energy.
You might as well just have solar panels on the rovers themselves, which
unsurprisingly is exactly what NASA did.

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diggernet
But solar panels in space can be much larger and dust free.

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stouset
Wouldn’t they have to beam that energy down to a dust-free sensor?

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diggernet
I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that a microwave receiver is less
sensitive to dust than solar panels. Also, if you've got a large solar array
in space sending a focused beam of energy to a rover, the receiver can be hit
with much more power than a same sized solar panel, which can more than offset
any losses from dust on the receiver.

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tzfld
I've always wondered, if these rovers' biggest problem is the dust, why do
they not try to add a fan to blow it away. I know that the martian atmosphere
is sparse, but it could still work.

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andygates
A shaker was also proposed, but for a 90-day spec they just left the panels as
they were. Both would have added mass, and non-mission mass is the Devil.

For human installations, "astronaut with a broom" ticks all the necessary
boxes.

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nkrisc
> For human installations, "astronaut with a broom" ticks all the necessary
> boxes.

First chore of the day for the future children of Martian farmers.

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matte_black
Could it last long enough to be picked up by Martian astronauts?

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TomK32
Not if Congress decides on Mars astronauts.

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craftyguy
Hopefully a more capable nation beats us (US) to Mars, while me continue to
figure out how to get back to the moon to relive the glorious 1960s.

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matte_black
Mars is for exploration, the moon is for commercialization and heavy
industries.

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aurelien
No armor ... no chocolate ;-)

Afaik lot of people told the NASA and ESA to build Armored robot ... Do you go
in slip at works ?

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pavel_lishin
what

