Mars Exploration News  
Spirit Continues Work As Martian Winter Deepens

Part of the McMurdo Panorama that Spirit's cameras have been compiling. Image credit: NASA/JPL
by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2006
NASA mission controllers report that Spirit continues to be productive even as Martian winter conditions harshen. Controllers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory report that Spirit now receives about one-third as much solar energy as the rover received during the Martian summer while it explored Husband Hill, in the Columbia Hills of Gusev Crater.

The rover now receives about 310 watt-hours per Martian day, or sol, compared with 900 watt-hours per sol last summer. A hundred watt-hours is the amount of electricity needed to light one 100-watt bulb for one hour.

The power supply limits how much work Spirit can do each sol. Nevertheless, Spirit acquired two more columns of the 360-degree McMurdo panorama it has been acquiring, plus a mosaic of microscopic images of a third layer of soil in a target known as Progress 3.

In addition, Spirit has completed six targeted studies using the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, all while the rover was also communicating with the Odyssey spacecraft during its overhead pass.

The rover team is preparing to send new flight software, known as version R9.2, to Spirit. Two previous flight-software upgrades were sent solely via Spirit's high-gain, X-band antenna, but the new uplink plan calls for using both X-band and UHF antennas.

X-band communications between NASA's Deep Space Network and Spirit often are unavailable, because NASA also has been using that frequency to support the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter during its aerobraking around the planet.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
New Desktop available - 1024x768. Mars Rovers at JPL
Mars Rovers at Cornell
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Pace Quickens For New Mars Orbiter
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jun 20, 2006
NASA's newest spacecraft at Mars has already cut the size and duration of each of its orbits by more than half, just 11 weeks into a 23-week process of shrinking its orbit. "The orbits are getting shorter and shorter," said Dan Johnston, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter deputy mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.









  • Could NASA Get To Pluto Faster? Space Expert Says Yes - By Thinking Nuclear
  • NASA plans to send new robot to Jupiter
  • Los Alamos Hopes To Lead New Era Of Nuclear Space Tranportion With Jovian Mission
  • Boeing Selects Leader for Nuclear Space Systems Program

  • GMV To Provide Mission Planning Software For Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
  • NASA Spies Lunar Meteoroid Impact
  • Shanghai Lands Star Role In Satellite Mission
  • The Sky Is Falling

  • Botanist To Study Seed Behavior Aboard Space Station
  • Douglass Urges NASA And Industry To Address Workforce Crisis
  • Optimize Trade Study Analyses With Software From Phoenix Integration And AGI
  • Stephen Hawking Calls For Mankind To Reach For Stars

  • Three Trojan Asteroids Share Neptune Orbit
  • New Horizons Crosses The Asteroid Belt
  • Trio Of Neptunes And Their Belt
  • New Model Could Explain Eccentric Triton Orbit

  • Gas Giants Consistently Larger Than Their Moons
  • Two Great Jovian Storms Converging
  • The Pull Of Jupiter
  • Hubble Takes Sharpest Shot Yet Of New Red Spot On Jupiter

  • Venus Express Commissioning Phase Completed
  • Venus Express Reaches Final Mission Orbit
  • Venus Express Transmits First Images
  • ESA Spacecraft Prepares To Lift Venusian Veil

  • A Tale Of Two Moons
  • Uncovering Rhea
  • Scattered Ice In Scattered Light
  • Collaboration Finds A Rolling Moon

  • Bacterium Takes A Shine To Metals
  • Faulty Design Caused Genesis Mishap
  • Joint European Strategy For Industrial Biotechnology
  • JAXA And DLR Conduct Orbit To Ground Optical Communication Experiment

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement