Kill rover Opportunity. mission Possible
The other day, the rover celebrated its 11th year on the surface of Mars. And despite its age, the rover feels great, which allowed the rover to climb on Cape Tribulation and make a panorama of the surroundings.
Initially it was assumed that the rover will work 90 Martian days. But the rover worked for almost 10 Earth years more than planned. Unfortunately, the rover remains "live" only until September 30. And the reason on Earth.
February 2 published " NASA FY 2016 budget document ", in which there is no funding for the rover. This is the second year that the Obama administration is literally trying to "Kill Opportunity." Last year, the White House at NASA FY 2015 budget document proposed to stop financing Opportunity. Fortunately, despite the stated intentions, the leadership of NASA managed to find the necessary funds to extend the mission. Now, the White House again offered to “nullify” the financing of Opportunity and not only that - the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) should stop working in 2016. Although both devices work fine.
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But the misery of planetologists does not end there - the Mars Odyssey orbiter, which serves as a relay station, transmitting most of the data from Opportunity and significant from Curiosity, will be disconnected from the "funding" in 2017.
Overall, the Obama administration proposed a NASA budget of $ 18.5 billion for the 2016 fiscal year. Although “Journey to Mars” is a priority for NASA, not a single dollar has been allocated for LRO and Opportunity. It is hoped that after an independent scientific assessment of the results of work in the summer of 2015, the rover will be rated as “excellent” and additional funding may be allocated. But there is no guarantee that this will happen. Priority in financing have new missions and the ISS.
If the mission is extended, the study will be a deposit of the mineral montmorillonite, discovered from orbit a few dozen meters from the current position of the rover. This mineral may indicate that in this place could not be acidic water, which was favorable for the occurrence of Martian microorganisms.
On the other hand, the White House insists that the rover is old and unable to continue to perform missions: “After a long and productive mission, Opportunity began to show signs of solid age, including recent problems with its flash memory,” says a NASA FY 2016 budget document .
Indeed, the problem did occur, but was successfully solved and the rover, as in the previous 11 years, performs weekly remote driving operations.
To date, the total distance traveled by the rover is 41.88 km, including 2.7 km covered during the last fiscal year. That is not bad for the device "showing signs of solid age." On July 27, 2014, NASA announced that the rover broke the Lunokhod-2 record, although the “Soviet Ferrari” ran this distance in a few months and could have walked a hundred by the end of the mission, if not for the ill-fated crater that had prematurely interrupted its run.
Initially it was assumed that the rover will work 90 Martian days. But the rover worked for almost 10 Earth years more than planned. Unfortunately, the rover remains "live" only until September 30. And the reason on Earth.
February 2 published " NASA FY 2016 budget document ", in which there is no funding for the rover. This is the second year that the Obama administration is literally trying to "Kill Opportunity." Last year, the White House at NASA FY 2015 budget document proposed to stop financing Opportunity. Fortunately, despite the stated intentions, the leadership of NASA managed to find the necessary funds to extend the mission. Now, the White House again offered to “nullify” the financing of Opportunity and not only that - the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) should stop working in 2016. Although both devices work fine.
')
But the misery of planetologists does not end there - the Mars Odyssey orbiter, which serves as a relay station, transmitting most of the data from Opportunity and significant from Curiosity, will be disconnected from the "funding" in 2017.
Overall, the Obama administration proposed a NASA budget of $ 18.5 billion for the 2016 fiscal year. Although “Journey to Mars” is a priority for NASA, not a single dollar has been allocated for LRO and Opportunity. It is hoped that after an independent scientific assessment of the results of work in the summer of 2015, the rover will be rated as “excellent” and additional funding may be allocated. But there is no guarantee that this will happen. Priority in financing have new missions and the ISS.
If the mission is extended, the study will be a deposit of the mineral montmorillonite, discovered from orbit a few dozen meters from the current position of the rover. This mineral may indicate that in this place could not be acidic water, which was favorable for the occurrence of Martian microorganisms.
On the other hand, the White House insists that the rover is old and unable to continue to perform missions: “After a long and productive mission, Opportunity began to show signs of solid age, including recent problems with its flash memory,” says a NASA FY 2016 budget document .
Indeed, the problem did occur, but was successfully solved and the rover, as in the previous 11 years, performs weekly remote driving operations.
To date, the total distance traveled by the rover is 41.88 km, including 2.7 km covered during the last fiscal year. That is not bad for the device "showing signs of solid age." On July 27, 2014, NASA announced that the rover broke the Lunokhod-2 record, although the “Soviet Ferrari” ran this distance in a few months and could have walked a hundred by the end of the mission, if not for the ill-fated crater that had prematurely interrupted its run.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/366139/
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