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ZL2VAL > ROVERS 26.02.04 13:12l 89 Lines 4115 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 030560ZL2VAL
Read: GUEST
Subj: Rovers status, 25th Feb
Path: DB0FHN<DB0THA<DB0ERF<DB0FBB<DB0FHK<DB0LJ<DB0RES<ON0BEL<KP4IG<WB0TAX<
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Sent: 040226/1017Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:36616 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : ROVERS@WW
Update: Spirit and Opportunity
SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Looks Back at Earth - sol 52, Feb 25, 2004
On sol 52, which ended at 3:54 p.m. PST, February 25, rover engineers
drove Spirit the short 4-meter (13.1 feet) drive to "Middle Ground"
after finishing observations with the miniature thermal emission and
Mössbauer spectrometers. Several stutter steps that would have put
Spirit at the exact target location were not executed because they were
programmed with built-in safeties. The rover detected slight hazards and
stopped within its constraints. The final steps will be executed next sol.
Waking up to Foreigner's "Cold as Ice," Spirit's first job of the sol
was to warm up its arm that was significantly colder than yestersol due
to the rover's orientation to the northwest. The engineering team also
took a moment to wave to Spirit as its panoramic camera faced and imaged
Earth.
Spirit will remain at "Middle Ground" for the next several sols and
continue observing targets with its spectrometers and microscopic
imager. Plans also call for high-resolution images of rocks and an
examination of the soil.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Opportunity Gets an Attitude Adjustment - sol 31,
Feb 25, 2004
On sol 31, which ended at 3:36 a.m. Wednesday, February 25, Opportunity
awoke to "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and his Comets. At 1:00
a.m. Local Solar Time, Opportunity sent data to Earth via the Mars
Global Surveyor orbiter and then sent another whopping 145.6 megabits of
data at 3:30 a.m. Local Solar Time via the Mars Odyssey orbiter.
During the morning hours, Opportunity collected data with the alpha
particle X-ray spectrometer for five hours and took measurements with
its miniature thermal emission spectrometer from inside its newly formed
hole that was created on sol 30 by the rock abrasion tool. Later,
Opportunity retracted and closed the door of the alpha particle X-ray
spectrometer and swapped the Moessbauer spectrometer into the hole made
by the abrasion tool for a leisurely 24-hour observation.
Opportunity also updated its "attitude knowledge," which fine-tunes the
rover's information about its exact location and position on Mars.
Updating the attitude knowledge allows the rover to more accurately
point the high gain antenna toward Earth, which increases the
communications capabilities. The attitude adjustment also enables
scientists and engineers to point instruments onboard Opportunity more
precisely at targets of interest, such as particular rocks and patches
of soil. To adjust the attitude knowledge, engineers have the rover turn
the panoramic camera to the Sun and watch the Sun travel across the sky
for 15 minutes. The rover is then smart enough to take the Sun movement
data collected from the panoramic camera to calculate its own location
in the universe?..on Mars. The rover gathers attitude knowledge errors
over time as it drives and uses the robotic arm extensively, but it only
needs an attitude adjustment about once a week or after driving long
distances.
Around 12:15 pm Local Solar Time, Opportunity went to sleep to recharge
its batteries from its strenuous rock abrasion tool activities on sol
30, but reawakened briefly at 4 p.m. Local Solar Time and again in the
evening to send data to Earth via additional overflights by the Mars
Global Surveyor and Odyssey orbiters.
The plan for sol 32, which ends at 4:15 a.m. Thursday, February 26, is
to take another unique set of Moessbauer measurements to look at the
rover-created hole in a different spectrum. The goal is to then crawl
slightly forward on sol 33 to position Opportunity to use the rock
abrasion tool on the upper target of the El Capitan/McKittrick area.
=========================
73 de Alan, (Sysop ZL2AB).
AX25:ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
APRS:!3903.34S/17406.45E]
IP :zl2val@qsl.net
Message timed: 23:11 on 2004-Feb-26 (NZT)
Message sent using WinPack-AGW V6.80
Points to ponder
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Insanity is contagious, You catch it from your kids.
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