Here is the latest from JPL on the stalled IDD motor


sol 661-667, Dec 09, 2005: Encouraging Results from Shoulder-Motor Testing

Opportunity is currently parked at "Erebus Crater," where it has continued remote-sensing science while the team made progress in diagnosing why a motor in the robotic arm stalled on sol 654. The motor turned successfully when supplied with more current on sol 666 (Dec. 8, 2005), an encouraging result. The arm was still in a stowed position after that testing. Further tests and analysis are planned for determining the best strategy for future use of the arm. The arm, which deploys four tools for examining rocks and soils, has already operated more than seven times as long as originally planned.

This motor at the shoulder of the arm is necessary for getting the arm out of its stowed position. Earlier tests made some alternative explanations -- such as a physical obstruction or degraded lubrication -- appear unlikely. The sol 666 test established confidence in a hypothesis that a broken wire in the winding of the motor caused the sol 654 stall. The test rotated the motor four revolutions at each of three different applied voltages. Tests to characterize the motor's behavior will continue in the coming week.

In the target-rich environment of outcrop exposed in and near Erebus, Opportunity has acquired a color panorama of the surroundings, a color mosaic of itself, and high-resolution images of several outcrop targets. The miniature thermal emission spectrometer successfully collected data on some high-priority science targets during sol 664 (Dec. 6, 2005). Informal names for targets examined in this vicinity by the panoramic camera include "Drake," "Chino Valley," "Bellemont," "Camp Verde," "Young," "Cherry," and "Paulden."

Opportunity did not drive this week. The rover's odometry total as of sol 666 remained 6,502 meters (4.04 miles).


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sol 649-660, Dec 01, 2005: Stalled Motor, Stowed Arm

Opportunity drove 43 meters on sol 649 (Nov. 20, 2005) and then bumped 10 meters to an outcrop for work with its robotic arm (instrument deployment device) over the Thanksgiving holidays. Opportunity's commands for sol 654 (Nov. 25, 2005) included unstowing the arm to begin using the tools on it for examining the layered outcrop that the rover had driven to three sols earlier. The arm is always stowed during drives. This time, a shoulder-joint motor that is needed for unstowing the arm stalled, and the arm stayed stowed. In subsequent sols, engineers worked to narrow the range of possibilities for the cause of the stall. Among the remaining possibilities is that, after working more than seven times longer than originally planned, the lubrication is degrading. One possible fix would be to increase the duration of the allowed motor start-up, to overcome the increased initial friction. The first diagnostic activity for the arm was performed sol 659, where a very small motion was recorded. Future diagnostic activities and continuing analysis will be performed to further characterize the shoulder-joint motor in upcoming sols.

As of sol 659 (Nov. 30, 2005), Opportunity has driven 6,502 meters (4.04 miles).

Why this new Topic?

Maybe a mod could change the "Strange Mi images" topic title instead...

Ooops, You are correct. My mistake.
Too many late nights.

Steve Squyres wrote a new update also dealing with Oppy's problems:

http://athena1.cornell.edu/news/mubss/

Michael

12 Dec 2005

Today, Airbag and myself had the great fortune to attend Steve Squyres science presentation at the Hayden Planetarium

Steve said the IDD situation is still as he wrote in his Dec 11 update (see quote below). They may decide to drive with the IDD partially deployed, but still TBD.

He also said that Victoria is definately the next big goal and that the view should be spectacular

The road ahead appears to be inclined upwards slightly and with good driving conditions.

He could not make a prediction on how long to get to Victoria or if it was attainable, given all the unknowns.


Partial Quote re IDD from Dec 11 Steve Squyres update:

"We're not out of the woods yet, and I'm not making any predictions.

However, the good news is that late last week we got the motor to move properly. It was just a small move, but by adjusting some of the parameters that control the motor we were able to compensate for what we think may be the problem inside the motor, and get it to move just the way we asked it to. We're going to continue to take our time with this, but I have high hopes that you may be seeing the IDD deployed out in front of the rover again before too long. We may have to operate it a big differently from here on out, but I'm also optimistic that we'll be doing science with it again pretty soon. "

I was also lucky enough to attend the talk at the Hayden Planetarium. (Loon, where were you sitting? Shortly before the talk began I stood up and asked if anyone from this forum was there, and was rewarded with a sea of quizzical looks.)

The talk and the accompanying graphics were were along the same lines as the talk in Houston summarized by CosmicRocker. [http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=1260] I thought that the images were well chosen (they look better on a big screen) and Squyres' "energetic and stimulating style" was in good form. He should be recruited for a TV series.

A couple of tidbits from my notes (apologies if any of these is old news).

-In addition to the graphics described by CosmicRocker, there were some really illuminating simulations of sedimentary cross-bedding, prepared by David Rubin of the USGS.

-He showed an animation which portrayed one of Spirit's drives, complete with backing and forthing as the software figured out how to deal with obstacles. I wish more of those engineering products were available.

-Squyres described the possibility of driving Opportunity with the arm partially deployed as driving "elbow out."

-He pointed out the shadow of Opportunity's parachute on a DIMES image.

-On the etymology of "blueberries," Squyres confirmed to my satisfaction what I had understood from one of the early press conferences. The name was chosen because of the way the blueberries in a blueberry muffin are embedded in the muffin, not because the concretions are blue. An earlier name was FLHB (freaky little hematite balls)

-On the subject of how much longer the rovers would survive, Squyres said that there was no basis for projection, because the components had generally been tested for 270 days, and obviously we're way past that. (The 270 day test horizon was new to me).

-He showed a slide of a meteor trail. He said that they had originally favored the conclusion that it was one of the many spacecraft in orbit around Mars, but that work done by French scientists had demonstrated that it was likely to have been a meteor. Later he told me that in his view there had been only one meteor sighting, and that all the other streaks on night photos were cosmic rays -- but that Jim Bell was more optimistic about having caught at least a few more.

-He's giving the talk again tonight at the NY Public Library, but today he'll be planning Spirit's drive to Comanche from his hotel room.

-When I mentioned the extensive archive of mission updates on the Athena site, he said that in addition to the public updates, he was simultaneously writing up "warts and all" updates to be circulated privately to his team, and that this internal commentary amounts to over 500 pages. When I asked if he would consider publishing them at some point, he just smiled.

-[this from the introduction] Squyres' grandfather, a biology teacher, used to bring him to the planetarium on weekends, and this was one of inspirations for his career in planetary science.

-[also from the introduction] Honeybee Robtics borrowed a meteorite sample from the Planetarium's collection to test the feasibility of RATing an iron meteorite.

Tom Tamlyn

I suspect they now pretty fully understand the motor issue. The question now is, do they keep it deployed? I'm sure it is now a matter of there being steeper odds of a more complete failure the more they use it. My guess is that they will drive with it deployed in the immediate future, just to confirm the needed software modifications and be certain of any unforseen consequences. Once they have run some drills, they may risk to stow it again.

Ah, well, mars loon and I attended the afternoon scientific seminar and not the evening public one. Sorry we could not meet you.

The focus of the afternoon talk was on the latest scientific results instead of the mission as a whole, and was aimed at the local astrophysics dept. and was a much smaller affair than the evening one.

When I have access to my notes I'll see if I can add anything to your good notes above.

Airbag

I will also add some things to your good notes in a few days

anyone in the nearby area please feel free to contact us to coordinate future events.

I was also at the public evening talk. (I don't know how I missed your query about forum members, Tom -- I was in about the 4th row up on the left side...)

One tidbit to add was that, according to Squyres, at one point his team "tried to sneak a microphone into the design" of the rovers. He had a really humerous expression when he said this (in reply to a young girl's question about if they had a microphone), and said that this was a story for another book.

Since this is getting quite off-topic for this thread, I have added more comments to the following threads:

Future Steve Squyres Questions, (that need a home until next QnA)

and

Steve Squyres' Comments On MSL

Airbag