In it’s quest to have Humans on Mars by 2035, NASA announced it is saying goodbye to its Opportunity rover on Mars after 8 months of radio silence. On Tuesday February 12, 2019 it has declared the veteran Mars rover Opportunity dead after 15 years on the red planet.
The golf buggy-sized robotic vehicle last made contact with Earth eight months ago, falling silent after being caught in a global dust storm.
Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate, NASA, said the rover “remained silent” after a last-ditch effort to contact it.
The team has tried every possible method of getting Opportunity to phone home again using NASA’s Deep Space Network, an array of massive radio telescopes here on Earth that are used to communicate with spacecraft deep in the Solar System. But they’ve had no luck.
One theory is that the dust storm that engulfed Opportunity was so obtrusive, it left a layer of dust on the rover’s solar panels, further preventing it from receiving sunlight.
NASA was still hopeful, however, Nov-Jan was considered a particularly windy time on Mars. Engineers hoped that a powerful gust might be able to blow off whatever was blocking the panels.
Now, Opportunity’s demise is all but certain, as the rover is about to enter Martian winter. Opportunity needs to stay above negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit (negative 40 degrees Celsius), though when it’s working, it has many ways to keep warm by 8 small plutonium heating units that give off a small amount of warmth, as well as electrical heaters.
Moving around produces heat for the robot’s battery and components, but with the rover sitting still all this time and drained of power, it hasn’t been able to warm itself up.
So the as-yet unnamed Mars 2020 mission remains more important than ever.
The rover’s design is derived from the Curiosity rover, and will use many components already fabricated and tested, but will carry different scientific instruments and a core drill to investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment (yes, it’s a thing) on Mars and investigate its geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability, the possibility of past life (aliens) on Mars, and the potential for preservation of biosignatures (fossils, certain elements, and such) within accessible geological materials (literally described by NASA as cool rocks).
The 3 major components of the Mars 2020 spacecraft are the cruise stage for travel between Earth and Mars; the Entry, Descent, and Landing System (EDLS) that includes the aeroshell, parachute, descent vehicle, and sky crane; and the rover.
NASA’s Mars Exploration Program has a planned launch in July or August. It’s main function will be to cache sample containers along its route for a potential future Mars sample-return mission.
The rover is based on the design of Curiosity.
While there are differences in scientific instruments and the engineering required to support them, the entire landing system (including the sky crane and heat shield) and rover chassis can essentially be recreated without any additional engineering or research which is meant to reduce the overall technical risk for the mission, while saving funds and time on development.
One of the upgrades is a guidance and control technique called “Terrain Relative Navigation” to fine-tune steering in the final moments of landing.
In October 2016, NASA reported using the Xombie rocket to test the Lander Vision System (LVS), as part of the Autonomous Descent and Ascent Powered-flight Testbed (ADAPT) experimental technologies, for the Mars 2020 mission landing, meant to increase the landing accuracy and avoid obstacle hazards.
A Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), left over as a backup part for Curiosityduring its construction, will power the rover.
The generator has a mass of 45 kilograms and uses 4.8 kilograms of plutonium dioxide for a steady supply of heat which is converted to electricity; the electrical power generated with little decrease over mission time.
Two lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are included to meet peak demands of rover activities when the demand temporarily exceeds the MMRTG’s steady electrical output levels and a 14-year operational lifetime, provided to NASA by the US Department of Energy.
Unlike solar panels, the MMRTG provides engineers with significant flexibility in operating the rover’s instruments even at night and during dust storms, and through the winter season.
The combination of the larger instrument suite, new Sampling and Caching System, and modified wheels makes Mars 2020 heavier than its predecessor.
The rover mission and launch are estimated to cost about US $2.5 billion. The mission’s predecessor, the Mars Science Laboratory, also cost US$2.5 billion in total.
The availability of spare parts make the new rover somewhat more affordable. Curiosity‘s engineering team are also involved in the rover’s design
Based on the scientific objectives, nearly 60 proposals for rover instrumentation were evaluated and, on 31 July 2014, NASA announced the payload for the rover.
Engineers redesigned the Mars 2020 rover wheels to be more robust than Curiosity‘s wheels, which have sustained some damage.
The rover will have thicker, more durable aluminum wheels, with reduced width and a greater diameter . Made of aluminum, the wheels are covered with cleats for traction and curved titanium spokes for springy support.
- Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to determine the fine scale elemental composition of Martian surface materials.[39][40]
- Radar Imager for Mars’ subsurface experiment (RIMFAX), a ground-penetrating radar to image different ground densities, structural layers, buried rocks, meteorites, and detect underground water ice and salty brine at 10 m (33 ft) depth.
- Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA), a set of sensors that measure temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity, radiation, and dust size and shape. It will be provided by Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología.
- Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE), an exploration technology investigation that will produce a small amount of oxygen (O
2) from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO
2).[45] This technology could be scaled up in the future for human life support or to make the rocket fuel for return missions. - SuperCam, an instrument suite that can provide imaging, chemical composition analysis and mineralogy in rocks and regolith from a distance. It is an upgraded version of the ChemCam on the Curiosity rover but with two lasers and four spectrometers that will allow it to remotely identify biosignatures and assess the past habitability.
- Mastcam-Z, a stereoscopic imaging system with the ability to zoom.
- Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals(SHERLOC), an ultraviolet Raman spectrometer that uses fine-scale imaging and an ultraviolet (UV) laser to determine fine-scale mineralogy and detect organic compounds.
- Mars Helicopter Scout (MHS) is a planned solar powered helicopter drone with a mass of 1.8 kg (4.0 lb) that will be tested for flight stability, and for its potential to scout the best driving route for the rover.The small helicopter is expected to fly up to five times during its 30-day testing, and will fly no more than 3 minutes per day. It is a technology demonstrator that will form the foundation on which more capable helicopters can be developed for aerial exploration of Mars and other planetary targets with an atmosphere.
- Microphones will be used during the landing event, while driving, and when collecting samples.
- 23 cameras in total are included in the Mars 2020 rover.
…. And just in time to.