Mars Rover Opportunity On Move After Surviving Martian Winter

PASADENA, Calif. -- The Mars rover Opportunity is on the go again.

After spending nearly five months conducting experiments in one spot, the NASA rover moved for the first time this week, rolling off the rock outcrop where it hunkered down for the Martian winter.

The mission team received confirmation late Tuesday that Opportunity successfully drove downhill. Engineers will check its power supply before directing it north to study dust and bedrock.

Opportunity will have to wait until there's more sunlight before it can head south where there's tantalizing evidence of clay deposits believed to have formed in a warm and wet environment early in Mars' history.

Since landing in 2004, Opportunity has surpassed expectations. Its twin Spirit lost contact in 2010 not long after it got stuck in a sand trap.

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Comments

[lakeinsky1]

04:40 PM on 05/12/2012

what would be the first things to build there - landing strip s - mineing metals -steel manufacture -water collection- residencial colonys -radiation barriers - i think i just radiated on my own parade

[Tim Kunk]

11:50 PM on 05/11/2012

Opportunity, you are doing us proud!

[westnova]

05:30 PM on 05/11/2012

My micro-bio says it's empty. How true, How true.

[SonOfUgh]

01:39 AM on 05/12/2012

Read my micro-bio.

[Miketou]

02:57 PM on 05/11/2012

Amazing. This is definitely the little rover that could. Hats off to American Ingenuity.

[Mitchman57]

12:28 PM on 05/11/2012

Our rovers will one day be placed in a museum as the carriers of the microbes that seeded intelligent life on Mars.

Primordial goo. (ten bonus points for the first to get that reference.)

[qtpeye46]

12:43 PM on 05/11/2012

that was used in a couple of movies I totally agree with you ;-)

[SonOfUgh]

01:40 AM on 05/12/2012

Other than the fact that they were sterilised before being sent there.

[lookbuzz]

10:28 AM on 05/11/2012

Most cars don't last that long.....

[SonOfUgh]

01:40 AM on 05/12/2012

Cars. Live fast, die young.

[kerriberri]

10:20 PM on 05/10/2012

Next step: Martian satellites so we can Google Mars.

[chaapai]

01:41 AM on 05/11/2012

Google Earth has a map of Mars you can check out.

[GoGrammie]

01:47 AM on 05/11/2012

Thank you for the tip. I am fascinated with the universe and never get enough!!! I'd fan you but I already have.

[kerriberri]

08:57 PM on 05/12/2012

Thanks!

[jsarets]

09:26 AM on 05/11/2012

There are currently three operational Mars satellites. NASA operates the 2001 Mars Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The European Space Agency operates the Mars Express Orbiter.

There are also some Mars satellites which are no longer operational. These include NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, the two Viking orbiters, and Mariner 9 (the first successful Mars satellite), as well as the Soviet Mars 2 and Mars 3 orbiters.

[kerriberri]

08:56 PM on 05/12/2012

Thank you; great info!

I've already fanned thee, but thanks again--love to learn!

[ALeahy]

08:04 PM on 05/10/2012

Amazing, these rovers! Here's a piece by Ken Kremer, who works on those great photographs of Mars: http://loftyambitions.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/guest-blog-ken-kremer/. It takes a team to do science like this.

[Kenz300]

05:12 PM on 05/10/2012

Seems like if this thing can run on solar power we can transition to safe clean alternative energy sources on earth.

Wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste are the future.

[qtpeye46]

12:43 PM on 05/11/2012

but who would get rich off of that?

[jsarets]

03:43 PM on 05/11/2012

Yeah, but it has a top speed of 0.1 mph in 3/8 earth gravity, it has to shut down for five months in the winter, and it wouldn't have enough battery capacity to survive the winter at higher latitudes. This is using advanced triple-junction photovoltaic cells, which are many times more expensive than the PV cells used on earth.

The next Mars rover, Curiosity, is powered by plutonium-238.

[Jarrod Putnam]

06:51 PM on 05/11/2012

Yes, and it also had extreme limitation with weight, so it could even get to Mars. Electric cars today can get to essentially "normal" car speed.

[wjhamilton29464]

05:01 PM on 05/10/2012

This thing is still running after 8 years? Utterly amazing.

[bridge to somewhere]

01:08 PM on 05/11/2012

The wind keeps cleaning dust off the solar panels...they had not expected it to be so effective!

[-swift]

02:03 PM on 05/10/2012

Opportunity wakes up after five months.

What should I do today? Let's see what I can find. Let's see. That's a rock. That's a rock. That one's a rock, too. Another rock. What's behind that big rock? Ah, a rock.

[yeti7]

05:27 PM on 05/11/2012

look behind myself and see what is following me in my water ice filled tracks.

[ProudToBeVeryLiberal]

12:58 PM on 05/10/2012

Opportunity is truly the Energizer Bunny of space exploration... :)

[edtheengineer]

07:49 PM on 05/10/2012

True, he just keeps going but does much more than just pound a drum.

[westnova]

05:36 PM on 05/11/2012

Thank goodness they didn't put his bateries in backwards or he would keep coming and coming and......

[yeti7]

05:28 PM on 05/11/2012

How long before it get to the spot where the Astronauts placed the US flag?

[ProudToBeVeryLiberal]

05:51 PM on 05/11/2012

Huh? Capricorn One is fiction. :)

[hagagaga]

12:04 PM on 05/10/2012

How has it lasted so long?

[Mike Dennison]

12:33 PM on 05/10/2012

1) Good engineers
2) Good controllers
3) Winds blowing dust off the solar panels

[DXM]

06:59 PM on 05/10/2012

and don't forget 4) Good luck. Opportunity's sister, Spirit, was unlucky enough to get stuck in soft sand and died there. There was also luck involved in the selection of the parts that went into both rovers. Two of Spirit's wheel actuators (basically their motors) failed and stuck which contributed to its demise while all six of Opportunity's wheel actuators are still functioning after over 8 years.

[Davidc Smith]

11:19 AM on 05/10/2012

Go Opportunity--glad you haven't been outsourced.

[SonOfUgh]

01:59 AM on 05/12/2012

Actually, by now, Opportunity probably has full immigrant status so, in fact, the mars exploration job has been outsourced to Martian labour.

[benji85]

11:17 AM on 05/10/2012

Money well spent. Now let's see some progress in getting a human there.

[edtheengineer]

01:53 PM on 05/10/2012

There must be a real breakthrough in launch vehicle capability before a meaningful human mission to Mars or Phobos can become a reality. The "footprints and flags" mission concept is a poor use of scarce $.

[Mitchman57]

12:25 PM on 05/11/2012

Scarce $ yes, but the money isn't just piled up and burned. Scientists' paychecks pay.... taxes for schools, groceries, new cars, kid's college.....

[bridge to somewhere]

01:12 PM on 05/11/2012

The ROI is at least 10X to 100X higher when we send humans instead of non-living scientists to places this remote. Would a human mission remain for 8 years? The only way people are going to Mars is if we get supplies in orbit and surface structures in place well ahead of time.

[bridge to somewhere]

02:18 PM on 05/11/2012

Whoops, got that the wrong way around...ROI is higher when we send non-humans...duh...