Although there was an excellent detailed description of the recovery efforts in the MER report, there are a few things that are unclear to me.
What is the "checkmate" condition, exactly? Can someone explain this a little more?
Also, hypothetically, if the solar panels were clean but the battery was impaired, could Opportunity communicate on solar power alone, without current from the battery? I realize that might mean a continuing clock fault, which would probably make timing too awkward to continue the mission very long, but it would still be worthwhile to learn the state of the rover following the dust storm.
Full Version: Dust Storm- Opportunity EOM
Checkmate scenarios are where the vehicles is getting 1.2A on the arrays - so it's 'solar groovy' - but for a duration that means - combined with the fault protection timing - it never actually opens up a fault window. It's pretty likely for short solar groovy periods- and then increasingly unlikely as the solar groovy duration gets longer with cleaning.
I'm using 'solar groovy' in every Oppy discussion from now on.
If it's time for some levity, maybe in the future Mars helicopters can fly over ground rovers, and blow off the dust!
The Columbia Hills (Spirits location) is one of the landing site candidates for Mars2020 and the Helicopter. 
QUOTE (James Sorenson @ Oct 7 2018, 09:39 PM) 
The Columbia Hills (Spirits location) is one of the landing site candidates for Mars2020 and the Helicopter.
Now that would be a comeback story! Spirit doing her best impression of Rip van Winkle....
QUOTE (James Sorenson @ Oct 8 2018, 02:39 AM)
The Columbia Hills (Spirits location) is one of the landing site candidates for Mars2020 and the Helicopter.
Now that sounds extremely solar groovy!
QUOTE (mcaplinger @ Oct 5 2018, 04:21 AM)
The fact of the matter is that not much can be determined from the HiRISE image, but clearly people want to believe that the rover is very dusty, since that's an explanation for why it hasn't woken up yet.
At least there is a bit more that can be done. From the September report:
QUOTE
In coming weeks, MRO will be gathering more data with CRISM, HiRiSE and the CTX. “We’re planning on making observations over next several months to monitor the surface changes over Endeavour as the storm subsides,” said Arvidson.
With CRISM, which is a little better calibrated and a little more sensitive to dust cover, they may be able to get a better idea of how much dust there might be on the ground. “It would be a way of trying to estimate whether the dust on the arrays is high, medium or low,” said Zurek. “We’re trying things. We’re going to try with CRISM. We don’t know if we can get something out of that, but it’s worth a try and we’re going to give it a try.”
“Obviously we’re not going to be able to resolve the rover in CRISM data, but it could give us a better handle on what’s going on with the dust environment,” Squyres agreed.
With CRISM, which is a little better calibrated and a little more sensitive to dust cover, they may be able to get a better idea of how much dust there might be on the ground. “It would be a way of trying to estimate whether the dust on the arrays is high, medium or low,” said Zurek. “We’re trying things. We’re going to try with CRISM. We don’t know if we can get something out of that, but it’s worth a try and we’re going to give it a try.”
“Obviously we’re not going to be able to resolve the rover in CRISM data, but it could give us a better handle on what’s going on with the dust environment,” Squyres agreed.
QUOTE
“It has been suggested that we are commanding just a little too late in the day, that we should be commanding earlier in the sol,” said Nelson. “And there is some rationale for that.”
Therefore, the mission is now trying to move some of their dish time earlier and/or negotiate their timeslot to pick up the Martian mornings at Endeavour. “We’re trying to widen our pattern,” Lever said. “We figure that we’re on a nice easterly tilt and when the Sun comes up, chances are we could get a solar array wake up in the morning instead of at noon.
Therefore, the mission is now trying to move some of their dish time earlier and/or negotiate their timeslot to pick up the Martian mornings at Endeavour. “We’re trying to widen our pattern,” Lever said. “We figure that we’re on a nice easterly tilt and when the Sun comes up, chances are we could get a solar array wake up in the morning instead of at noon.
Indeed, if the rover is tilted 30 eastward, then a morning sun elevation of 60 degrees might optimally match that tilt. I think that might occur at around 10 am local time. Perhaps that is the most "solar groovy" time.
QUOTE (marsophile @ Oct 9 2018, 07:20 PM)
Indeed, if the rover is tilted 30 eastward, ...
Not sure if this is a typo, but it could be I misled someone in thinking so with a post made some time ago. When I said the attitude *difference* between two positions was 30 degrees it was due to the fact the rover in the first position was at about 10 deg Westerly tilt, and now it is at 20 deg Easterly. So the current rover Easterly is (only) 20 deg. Still the point being made about the SAW is correct.
Paolo
QUOTE (fredk @ Oct 8 2018, 08:12 PM)
At least there is a bit more that can be done....
Would additional HiRISE images reveal tracks of dust devils or gusts, maybe on the basis of appropriately adjusted difference images? If so, this should return a hint of when the dust load on the arrays should have changed, i.e. cleaning events may have taken place. These gusts are probably larger than the rover, and their tracks would be easier to resolve.
Another approach would be the inference of an SR image from several HiRISE images, provided the size of the pixels is the limiting factor for the resolution. Alternatively, S/N could be improved by averaging a sequence of well-registered HiRISE images.
Perhaps the best indication of dust clearing, or a dust cleaning event will be communication from Opportunity.
QUOTE (fredk @ Oct 8 2018, 11:12 AM)
At least there is a bit more that can be done. From the September report:
QUOTE
In coming weeks, MRO will be gathering more data with CRISM, HiRiSE and the CTX. “We’re planning on making observations over next several months to monitor the surface changes over Endeavour as the storm subsides,” said Arvidson.
Perhaps observations of the very bright Winnemucca plateau area might provide a good estimate of the dust cover by comparing the current albedo with the previous one. (I seem to recall mention of plans to do a CRISM orbital study of Winnemucca.)
QUOTE (marsophile @ Oct 17 2018, 08:31 PM)
Perhaps observations of the very bright Winnemucca plateau area might provide a good estimate of the dust cover by comparing the current albedo with the previous one. (I seem to recall mention of plans to do a CRISM orbital study of Winnemucca.)
I would be surprised if CRISM could resolve that feature. CRISM pixels are about 25-30 meter GSD, depending on the observation geometry. Even with oversampling, a pixel is never better than 6x27 meters.
Paolo
In my many winters' experience with snow, and three recent experiences with forest fire ash, the deposition of a windborne, granular substance does not cover all surfaces equally. Maybe Oppy's solar panels accumulate half as much as nearby surface units, maybe twice as much. I don't know how we could know – unless and until Opportunity wakes up and sends us pictures.
QUOTE (JRehling @ Oct 18 2018, 07:56 AM)
In my many winters' experience with snow, and three recent experiences with forest fire ash, the deposition of a windborne, granular substance does not cover all surfaces equally. Maybe Oppy's solar panels accumulate half as much as nearby surface units, maybe twice as much. I don't know how we could know – unless and until Opportunity wakes up and sends us pictures.
The law of averages: an interval around the mean carries the most probability mass. It is true we cannot know in any absolute sense but we can maybe get a likely estimate that could inform the recovery strategy going forward.
With regard to CRISM on Winnemucca:
http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-top...nce-valley.html
QUOTE
Instead, the scientists are examining Winnemucca with ground imagery, remote sensing, and an orbital mineralogical detector.
I assumed the orbital mineralogical detector was CRISM. In any case, it can be imaged by HIRISE, and I think the bright backdrop might provide a convenient "canvas" for viewing the new dust deposit.
QUOTE (JRehling @ Oct 18 2018, 06:56 AM)
unless and until Opportunity wakes up and sends us pictures.
I think if that happens, a gust would have blown a vast majority of any fallout off of the panels since Oppy would have woken up and phoned home. We will never really know at leased for sure how much accumulation was really on them in that case or any case.
Oppy did take a pancam color panorama in the weeks on up to the end of science ops. So if the rover does wake up and starts taking pics around the area, change detection could be interesting. Not sure if even that would give an accurate fallout estimate, since winds could have also cleared the area.
QUOTE
After a review of the progress of the listening campaign, NASA will continue its current strategy for attempting to make contact with the Opportunity rover for the foreseeable future. Winds could increase in the next few months at Opportunity's location on Mars, resulting in dust being blown off the rover's solar panels. The agency will reassess the situation in the January 2019 time frame.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7227
Cheers to Nasa for continuing the effort!
Are false locks less likely when COMM sessions are scheduled on a dedicated antenna, rather than in an MSPA group?
There's no difference.
Is this thread about to get busy?
There's a tweet from Chris G from NASASpaceflight about a 11b/s downlink, but there's been false alarms before from orbiter signals.
Probably a misidentified lock, re-identified later as on Maven.
https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1063171515208945664
https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1063175195492601857
https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1063183283754844161
https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1063181601453031427
https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1063171515208945664
https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1063175195492601857
https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1063183283754844161
https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1063181601453031427
"Today http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html showed what looked like a signal from @MarsRovers Opportunity. As much as we'd like to say this was an #OppyPhoneHome moment, further investigation shows these signals were not an Opportunity transmission."
https://twitter.com/NASAJPL/status/1063204394596937728
I'd also refer people back to this : http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=241237
https://twitter.com/NASAJPL/status/1063204394596937728
I'd also refer people back to this : http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=241237
I suspect the Insight spacecraft is close enough to Mars now for its signal to be confused with that of Opportunity. The frequency is not so different. It will be landing soon.
Not really....
From https://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsndocs/810-005/302/302C.pdf the half power beam width for Xband on the 70M antennas is 0.034 degrees
Using Eyes on the Solar System - currently the InSight-Earth-Mars angle is around 0.56 degrees.
It will drop to 0.1 degrees at about 30 hrs before landing, 0.034 degrees about 10 1/2 hrs before landing,
From https://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsndocs/810-005/302/302C.pdf the half power beam width for Xband on the 70M antennas is 0.034 degrees
Using Eyes on the Solar System - currently the InSight-Earth-Mars angle is around 0.56 degrees.
It will drop to 0.1 degrees at about 30 hrs before landing, 0.034 degrees about 10 1/2 hrs before landing,
http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-top...son-begins.html
New MER Update from TPS. It mentions a new hirise image that however has not been released yet. Also a discussion of the MER extension proposal. Apparently there are certain commonalities between the Endeavour and Gale craters.
New MER Update from TPS. It mentions a new hirise image that however has not been released yet. Also a discussion of the MER extension proposal. Apparently there are certain commonalities between the Endeavour and Gale craters.
https://www.space.com/42691-mars-rover-oppo...-team-hope.html
QUOTE
"Still holding onto a sliver of hope...."
QUOTE (marsophile @ Dec 13 2018, 07:31 AM)
That article says pretty much the same as the one from the Planetary Society, however this tweet from systems engineer that came a few days later is less optimistic now
https://twitter.com/AstroStaab/status/1072216372849954816
My take is that the likelyhood of Oppy waking up increases as time goes by until end of January 2019 then it drops quite rapidly. The idea being that between Ls 290 and Ls 310 we have seen cleaning events. As it stands Oppy likely needs more than one cleaning event to regain consciousness. Once the windy season is over Winter will get the vehicle too cold to survive. This is *my* take, not an official position of my employer, yadda yadda yadda.
Paolo
Paolo
I have a question for you Paolo. I am trying to get an idea of what the final physical state of what the rover was left in. The last hazcam's show that the arm was placed on a target with the APXS in contact and I vaguely recall reading in a planetary society update that it was a team's decision to leave the arm placed on that target during storm prep. I have not been able to locate that again. Was this the case? What was the final position that the camera mast in? I assume it was placed so the cameras were pointed down in such a dust storm situation. I just find it fascinating to know because the final known pose position for any surface mission would be how they would look for millions or even billions of years. It is how they will look like when astronaut's walk up to them. 
Yes, the APXS is down on the target. We didn't have any power to do anything except take the last tau measurement. The PMA is always "stowed" before a shutdown, that is the elevation is at least 17 deg below the horizon. We do not point the PMA straight down in case the elevation actuator stops working you can at least see a bit of terrain in front of the rover while having the cameras pointed down-ish.
Paolo
Paolo
Thank you for confirming that for me, Paolo.
Assuming a clock fault has occurred on Opportunity, what happens to the clock once power is restored? Does it reset to a random time and continue from there? Or does it remain unusable until a reset is commanded from Earth?
QUOTE (marsophile @ Dec 30 2018, 05:59 PM)
Assuming a clock fault has occurred on Opportunity, what happens to the clock once power is restored? Does it reset to a random time and continue from there?
https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/publicati...Drift_final.pdf -- I expect that the Mission Clock would reset to zero if the power dropped below the maintenance level, but I'm not sure. It really doesn't matter for recovery as there are other sol-based timers that will be used. If they recover, resetting the clock should be simple.
As we know, there have been many spurious DSN locks on Opportunity. I assume however that a DSN lock can only occur at a time when an antenna is scheduled for downlink on a mission, i.e., the antenna is actively listening.
Thus, I am puzzled by this, no doubt spurious, lock
https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1081774112303919105
which, if I am not mistaken, occurred around 5am local solar time at the Opportunity site. Why would a listening window be scheduled for a time that seems clearly before any "solar groovy" time? A scheduling artifact?
Thus, I am puzzled by this, no doubt spurious, lock
https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1081774112303919105
which, if I am not mistaken, occurred around 5am local solar time at the Opportunity site. Why would a listening window be scheduled for a time that seems clearly before any "solar groovy" time? A scheduling artifact?
QUOTE (marsophile @ Jan 6 2019, 10:50 AM)
if I am not mistaken, occurred around 5am local solar time at the Opportunity site
Tweet is dated 8:47 PM 1/5/2019, which I assume is PST. That's 04:47 UT on 2019-006 which according to MarsJ24 is 11:12 LMST at Opportunity.
Nice and sunny albeit with a dusty haze. So was it a carrier lock on Opportunity?
QUOTE (serpens @ Jan 6 2019, 04:59 PM)
Nice and sunny albeit with a dusty haze. So was it a carrier lock on Opportunity?
Most likely a lock on Maven, which was active shortly afterwards at a similar frequency and power level (when it uses LGA)
https://twitter.com/dsn_status/status/1081790404515766272
I had thought the Oppy time specified at the Mars Rover site
https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/home/
matched that at the Lemmon site
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~lemmon/mars/MERClocks/merb.html
but they seem to have fallen out of synch.
Not sure what's up with the JPL clock. The other one is out of date by several leap seconds (and a sol 1k issue). The tau site has a more up to date clock.
QUOTE (MahFL @ Jan 25 2019, 07:08 PM)
Interesting that they are checking for possible X-band radio and backup X-band radio failures, and trying UHF.
There is a lot we don't know about major Martian dust storms. One would imagine with the cold and dryness there might be buildups of static electricity. Perhaps electrical discharges occur. (It might have been worthwhile for MRO to image the night side of Mars during the dust storm on the oft-chance that such discharges might be visible.)
If Opportunity were to be hit by an electrical discharge, what would be most likely to be affected? Are there scenarios in which a limited subset of the facilities might be knocked out?
Kenneth Chang of the New York Times put up an elegiac article last Friday, with extensive comments by Steven Squyres: ‘This Could Be the End’ for NASA’s Mars Opportunity Rover.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/science/...nity-rover.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/science/...nity-rover.html
Another fine elegiacal article about Opportunity and the MER mission, this one much longer, over 2500 words in Scientific American by Rebecca Boyle, a science writer who I should have been following.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/...oaches-its-end/
There’s nothing particularly new for our crowd, but it's deftly written, contains a well-informed overview, and includes pleasing short profiles of Ray Arvidson, Steve Squyers, and particularly of Deputy Project Scientist Abigail Fraeman, whose mentors include Emily Lakdawalla, through Lakdawalla's first Planetary Society project, “Red Rover Goes to Mars” for high school students.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/...oaches-its-end/
There’s nothing particularly new for our crowd, but it's deftly written, contains a well-informed overview, and includes pleasing short profiles of Ray Arvidson, Steve Squyers, and particularly of Deputy Project Scientist Abigail Fraeman, whose mentors include Emily Lakdawalla, through Lakdawalla's first Planetary Society project, “Red Rover Goes to Mars” for high school students.
http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-top...nniversary.html
Discussion about so-called "Hail Mary" recovery attempts.
Discussion about so-called "Hail Mary" recovery attempts.
QUOTE (RoverDriver @ Dec 13 2018, 08:14 PM)
My take is that the likelyhood of Oppy waking up increases as time goes by until end of January 2019 then it drops quite rapidly. The idea being that between Ls 290 and Ls 310 we have seen cleaning events.
Maybe moot at this point, but the evidence is that it is dust devils specifically, rather than gusts overall, that are principally responsible for clearing events.
See my paper in Icarus
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6350794
QUOTE (rlorenz @ Feb 6 2019, 09:00 AM)
See my paper in Icarus
Interesting paper. It's surprising and disappointing to me that the solar array performance data remains unreleased.
QUOTE (rlorenz @ Feb 6 2019, 09:00 AM)
Maybe moot at this point, but the evidence is that it is dust devils specifically, rather than gusts overall, that are principally responsible for clearing events.
See my paper in Icarus
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6350794
See my paper in Icarus
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6350794
Regardless of what the source is, we all call them cleaning events, whether strong winds, dust devils, or other unknown aeolian events, between Ls290 and 310 historically we have seen the highest number of cleaning events for the past 7 Martian Years.
Paolo
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