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MER-B
''Opportunity'', also known as MER-B (Mars Exploration Rover – B) or MER-1, is a Robotics, robotic rover (space exploration), rover that was active on Mars from 2004 until 2018. ''Opportunity'' was operational on Mars for Timekeeping on Mars#Sols, sols (). Launched on July 7, 2003, as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover program, it landed in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, three weeks after its twin, ''Spirit (rover), Spirit'' (MER-A), touched down on the other side of the planet. With a planned 90-Sol (day on Mars), sol duration of activity (slightly less than 92.5 Earth days), ''Spirit'' functioned until it got stuck in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010, while ''Opportunity'' was able to stay operational for sols after landing, maintaining its power and key systems through continual recharging of its batteries using solar power, and hibernating during events such as dust storms to save power. This careful operation allowed ''Opportunity'' to operate for 57 tim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opportunity Mission Timeline
''Opportunity'' is a robotic rover that was active on the planet Mars from 2004 to 2018. Launched on July 7, 2003, ''Opportunity'' landed on Mars' Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, at 05:05 Ground UTC (about 13:15 Mars local time), three weeks after its twin ''Spirit'' (MER-A), also part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission, touched down on the other side of the planet."Spirit" landed on January 4, 2004. While ''Spirit'' became immobile in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010, ''Opportunity'' exceeded its planned 90 sol (Martian days) duration of activity by 14 years 46 days (in Earth time). ''Opportunity'' continued to move, gather scientific observations, and report back to Earth until 2018. What follows is a summary of events during its continuing mission. ''Opportunity'' started in Eagle crater in 2004, literally landing inside on the crater basin, then it travelled outward making its way to Endurance crater. After this it went to Victoria crater, all the way m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endeavour Crater
Endeavour is an impact crater located in the Meridiani Planum extraterrestrial plain within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars. Endeavour is about in diameter. Using ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' data, phyllosilicate-bearing outcrops have been detected along its rim. These minerals may have formed under wet conditions in a low-acidic environment during the early history of Mars. There are raised rim segments to the north, east, and southwest. The rim has become worn, rounded and degraded, with infilling of plains material in a manner similar to the Victoria crater. When compared to the surrounding plains, the crater floor shows an enhanced spectral signature of basalt and hematite. The interior contains two groups of dune fields. Images taken since 2008 show evidence of changes in some of the associated formations, which may be evidence of active erosion by the martian wind over a period of two to three years. The plains surrounding the rim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars Exploration Rover
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, ''Spirit (rover), Spirit'' and ''Opportunity (rover), Opportunity'', exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rover (space exploration), rovers to explore the Martian surface and Geology of Mars, geology; both landed on Mars at separate locations in January 2004. Both rovers far outlived their planned missions of 90 Timekeeping on Mars#Sols, Martian solar days: MER-A ''Spirit'' was active until March 22, 2010, while MER-B ''Opportunity'' was active until June 10, 2018. Objectives The mission's scientific objective was to search for and characterize a wide range of rock (geology), rocks and soils that hold clues to past Water on Mars, water activity on Mars. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, which includes three previous successful landers: the two Viking program landers in 1976 and Mars Pathfinder probe in 1997. The total cost o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria Crater
Victoria is an impact crater on Mars located at 2.05°S, 5.50°W in the Meridiani Planum extraterrestrial plain, lying situated within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars. This crater was first visited by the Mars Exploration Rover ''Opportunity''. It is roughly wide, nearly eight times the size of the crater Endurance, visited by ''Opportunity'' from sols 951 to 1630. It is informally named after ''Victoria'' – one of the five Spanish ships of Ferdinand Magellan and the first ship to circumnavigate the globe – and formally named after Victoria, Seychelles. Along the edges of the crater are many outcrops within recessed alcoves and promontories, named for bays and capes that Magellan discovered. ''Opportunity'' traveled for 21 months to Victoria before finally reaching its edge on September 26, 2006 (sol 951), at the newly named "Duck Bay". Around the rover were features dubbed "No Name", "Duck Crater", " Emma Dean", "Maid of the Cany ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Delta II Heavy
Delta II was an expendable launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas. Delta II was part of the Delta rocket family and entered service in 1989. Delta II vehicles included the Delta 6000, and the two later Delta 7000 variants ("Light" and "Heavy"). The rocket flew its final mission ICESat-2 on 15 September 2018, earning the launch vehicle a streak of 100 successful missions in a row, with the last failure being GPS IIR-1 in 1997. History In the early 1980s, all United States expendable launch vehicles were planned to be phased out in favor of the Space Shuttle, which would be responsible for all government and commercial launches. Production of Delta, Atlas-Centaur, and Titan 34D had ended. The ''Challenger'' disaster of 1986 and the subsequent halt of Shuttle operations changed this policy, and President Ronald Reagan announced in December 1986 that the Space Shuttle would no longer launch commercial payloads, and NASA would seek to purchase launch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rover (space Exploration)
A rover (or sometimes planetary rover) is a planetary surface exploration device designed to move across the solid surface on a planet or other planetary mass celestial bodies. Some rovers have been designed as land vehicles to transport members of a human spaceflight crew; others have been partially or fully autonomous robots. Rovers are typically created to land on another planet (other than Earth) via a lander (spacecraft), lander-style spacecraft, tasked to collect information about the terrain, and to take crust (geology), crust samples such as dust, soil, rocks, and even liquids. They are essential tools in space exploration. Features Rovers arrive on spacecraft and are used in conditions very distinct from those on the Earth, which makes some demands on their design. Reliability Rovers have to withstand high levels of acceleration, high and low temperatures, pressure, dust, corrosion, cosmic rays, remaining functional without repair for a needed period of time. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars Rover
A Mars rover is a motor vehicle designed to travel on the surface of Mars. Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny positions to weather winter months, and they can advance the knowledge of how to perform very remote robotic vehicle control. They serve a different purpose than orbital spacecraft like ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter''. A more recent development is the Mars helicopter. , there have been six successful robotically operated Mars rovers; the first five, managed by the American NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, were (by date of Mars landing): ''Sojourner'' (1997), ''Spirit'' (2004–2010), ''Opportunity'' (2004–2018), ''Curiosity'' (2012–), and ''Perseverance'' (2021–). The sixth, managed by the China National Space Administration, is ''Zhurong'' (2021–). On January 24, 2016, NASA reported that then current studies on Mars by ''Opportunit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spirit (rover)
''Spirit'', also known as MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover – A) or MER-2, is a Mars Rover, Mars robotic rover, active from 2004 to 2010. ''Spirit'' was operational on Mars for Timekeeping on Mars#Sols, sols or 3.3 Martian years ( days; '). It was one of two rover (space exploration), rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Spirit landed successfully within the impact crater Gusev (Martian crater), Gusev on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, ''Opportunity (rover), Opportunity'' (MER-B), which landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a Sofi Collis, NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover got stuck in a "sand trap" in late 2009 at an angle that hampered recharging of its batteries; its last communication with Earth was on March 22, 2010. The rover completed its planned 90-Martian day, sol mission (slightly less than 92.5 Earth days). Aided by cleani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, and reached Mars on March 10, 2006. In November 2006, after five months of aerobraking, it entered its final science orbit and began its primary science phase. The cost to develop and operate MRO through the end of its prime mission in 2010 was . The spacecraft continues to operate at Mars, far beyond its intended design life. Due to its critical role as a high-speed data-relay for ground missions, NASA intends to continue the mission as long as possible, at least through the late 2020s. Pre-launch After the twin failures of the ''Mars Climate Orbiter'' and the Mars Polar Lander missions in 1999, NASA reorganized and replanned its Mars Exploration Program. In October 2000, NASA announced its reformulated Mars plans, which reduced the numb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars Exploration Program
Mars Exploration Program (MEP) is a long-term effort to explore the planet Mars, funded and led by NASA. Formed in 1993, MEP has made use of orbital spacecraft, landers, and Mars rovers to explore the possibilities of life on Mars, as well as the planet's climate and natural resources. The program is managed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate by Doug McCuistion of the Planetary Science Division. As a result of 40% cuts to NASA's budget for fiscal year 2013, the Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) was formed to help reformulate the MEP, bringing together leaders of NASA's technology, science, human operations, and science missions. Governance First convening in October 1999, the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) enables the scientific community to provide input for the planning and prioritizing of the Mars Exploration Program. Mars exploration missions, as do most NASA missions, can be fairly costly. For example, NASA's ''Curiosity'' rover (landed on Mars in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Safe Mode (spacecraft)
Safe mode is an operating mode of a modern unmanned spacecraft during which all non-essential systems are shut down and only essential functions such as thermal management, radio reception and attitude control are active. Safe mode is entered automatically upon the detection of a predefined operating condition or event that may indicate loss of control or damage to the spacecraft. Usually the trigger event is a system failure or detection of operating conditions considered dangerously out of the normal range. Cosmic rays penetrating spacecraft electrical systems can create false signals or commands and thus cause a trigger event. The central processor electronics are especially prone to such events. Another trigger is the lack of a received command within a given time window. Lack of received commands can be caused by hardware failures or mis-programming of the spacecraft, as in the case of the Viking 1 lander. The process of entering safe mode, sometimes referred to as ''safing'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
