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ZL2VAL > ROVERS 08.11.04 13:09l 97 Lines 3954 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : CD0383ZL2VAL
Read: GUEST
Subj: Mystery boost to charger
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Sent: 041108/1011Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:51426 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : ROVERS@WW
*Mars Rover Get Mystery Power Boost *
By John Antczak
The Associated Press
posted: 04 November, 2004
7:45 a.m. ET
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ As NASA's Mars rovers keep rolling past all
expectations of their useful lives, scientists have a happy mystery: For
some reason one of the vehicles has actually gained power recently.
Opportunity recently experienced an unexplained rejuvenation from what
can so far be described only as two or three significant "cleaning
events,'' said Jim Erickson, the rover project manager at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
"Now we're assuming they're cleaning, but all we can really say is that
overnight the solar panels produced between 2 and 5 percent additional
power immediately,'' he said. "We're surmising that for some reason dust
is being removed from the solar panel and that's increasing the
efficiency of the sunlight being converted to electricity.''
The rover team has been bandying about theories, but hasn't figured out
the cause.
"One favorite is that a dust devil happened to pick the vehicle to go
through and go over the surface of it and clean it off a little bit,''
Erickson said.
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, parachuted to opposite sides of Mars
back in January, but they remain in good shape after enduring the worst
of the Martian winter, which cut down on the amount of energy reaching
their solar panels.
Both six-wheeled rovers have discovered geologic evidence of past water
activity on the Red Planet and are continuing to send valuable data.
"We are pushing these vehicles to their very limits,'' said Steve
Squyres, the rover principal investigator from Cornell University in
Ithaca, N.Y. "In many ways they are performing better in some sense just
because we've gotten better at operating them and we are in this much
more challenging and geologically rich terrain.''
Spirit has had several minor problems, indicating that various parts may
be showing their age, Erickson said.
Spirit, having trekked nearly two miles across the flat terrain of the
vast Gusev Crater region where it set down, is zigzagging up the rugged
Columbia Hills and is now nearly 200 feet above the surrounding plain.
The intriguing layered rocks of the hills are much different than the
plain below, and scientists are working on multiple hypotheses to
explain how they formed.
The leading theory is that the rocks began as volcanic ash that fell out
of the sky or moved along the ground in ash flows, and minerals inside
them were subsequently altered by ground water, said Ray Arvidson, the
rover deputy principal investigator from Washington University in St.
Louis, Mo.
Opportunity is nearing the end of its exploration of stadium-size
Endurance Crater in the Meridiani Planum region and may claw its way
over the rim.
The rovers had available about 1,000 watt-hours a day when they arrived
on Mars, but dust on their solar panels and the seasonal decrease in
solar energy have limited their power, and therefore their activities.
Opportunity is now at about 820 watt-hours and remains very close to
full capability. Spirit, which is in a less advantageous position to
point its arrays toward the sun, has 350 to 400 watt-hours daily.
-=###=-
73, Alan
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