Opportunity winter survival?

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brdavis@iusb.edu - 15 Mar 2006 20:43 GMT

Amazingly enough, it's that time of year again on Mars. I've seen a
number of hints as to how to get Spirit into position to survive the
upcoming winter by spending it on a properly-tilted slope. But
Opportunity seems to have far fewer... opportunities. The last winter,
it stayed on the correct side of a sharply angled crater, but it looks
to have far fewer such options now.
So has anyone seen any speculation on how (or if?) Opportunity will
survive the Martian winter?

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Brian Davis

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Neil Gerace - 24 Mar 2006 06:49 GMT

> Amazingly enough, it's that time of year again on Mars. I've seen a
> number of hints as to how to get Spirit into position to survive the
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> So has anyone seen any speculation on how (or if?) Opportunity will
> survive the Martian winter?

Send her boyfriend Stardust around there. He's free at the moment :-)

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mun.yew.smith@gmail.com - 25 Mar 2006 10:42 GMT

> But Opportunity seems to have far fewer... opportunities.

Opportunity will enjoy the tropical weather in equateral Meridiani
Planum while Spirit does her best to stay warm through the winter.

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Geoffrey - 25 Mar 2006 10:51 GMT

"Brian Davis" <brda...@iusb.edu> wrote:

> Amazingly enough, it's that time of year again on Mars. I've seen a
> number of hints as to how to get Spirit into position to survive the
> upcoming winter by spending it on a properly-tilted slope.

That was originally my suggestion. Probably my most significant
contribution to the mission :/

> But Opportunity seems to have far fewer... opportunities. The last
> winter, it stayed on the correct side of a sharply angled crater, but it
> looks to have far fewer such options now.
> So has anyone seen any speculation on how (or if?) Opportunity will
> survive the Martian winter?

Opportunity is a bit closer to the equator than Spirit, so it's not a
desperate problem quite as soon as it is for Spirit. We're heading for
an enormous crater, Victoria, about 2 km southeast. I don't know how
much people have discussed Victoria (it's been so far away for so long
that people have rather forgotten about it), but it's mentioned from
time to time as the long-term destination in the status reports, such
as the March 11 report:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html

Here's the picture of the route, where you can see how huge it is:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/images.cfm?id=1826

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Geoffrey A. Landis
http://www.sff.net/people/geoffrey.landis

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Jan Vorbrüggen - 27 Mar 2006 08:26 GMT

>>Amazingly enough, it's that time of year again on Mars. I've seen a
>>number of hints as to how to get Spirit into position to survive the
>>upcoming winter by spending it on a properly-tilted slope.
> That was originally my suggestion. Probably my most significant
> contribution to the mission :/

Seems like such a simple and clear idea - after you came up with it 8-)...

Jan

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Space Forum / Space Flight / March 2006

Opportunity winter survival?