Mars Rover's Unexpected Behavior Puzzles NASA

reply to post by Darthorious


No they cannot use wipers, that was tested during the initial designs and found to be useless because the wipers, which they tested soft brush type wipers, would end up scratching the highly polished surface of the pannels from the dust being wiped off by the brushes. It was choosen to just let the wind blow off the dust. But since the dust gets kicked up alot, they tend to be almost consistantly covered with at least a thin layer of dust.

What they should have done, and I even sent JPL an email about it, was to mount small wind generators on the rovers. This would have augmented the solar pannels and increased the available wattage, even during the night, the wind generators could keep the batteries charged up.

Never got any reply from JPL about that.

I sent them another email a couple months ago about putting one on the new MSL rover. Maybe they will do that this time.



Cheers!!!!

RF, my question is: why wait so long? NASA expected it to survive for 3 months to a year max, why not just complete the mission charter and then say it broke? After all, are they not running a tremendous risk by letting them go for all these years? They could stop working at anytime, why wait for 5 years after the mission is complete?

You know, there was a time here at ATS when InfaRedMan and SaviorComplex actually put effort into bring a compelling argument from the skeptical vantage point. I remember it well and respected you guys a great deal but now it seems that you and many other ‘skeptics’ have turned into nothing more than instigators.

Wearing out the quote button while whipping up one-liners is weak in my opinion. Another thing, you can use the face all you want, doesn’t make it humorous.

Thank you, drive through.….


Look, I can do it too! It doesn't make the line above funny at all!

[edit on 29-1-2009 by TheDarkHorse]

Originally posted by GrandIllusion
It's obvious to me that the poor guy got stuck under a tree and can't find the sun!
How is NASA supposed to explain that one? Whooopsie!

Must be them darn bushes the MOC camera's took a picture of eh?



For the inquireing mind...

Mars Mission Failures:

Failures at the Moment of Truth

NASA Advisors Explain Mars Mission Failures to a Concerned Congress

Human Error May Have Doomed Mars Probe

Letter from President Clinton to NASA Administrator Goldin re: Mars Probe Failures

Why the Mars Probe Went Off Course

Costly Mars Mission Failure

At least now, they are taking extra steps to prevent failure for the next MSL mission.

NASA Delays 2009 Mars Mission Due to Technical Problems



Cheers!!!!

Originally posted by TheDarkHorse
RF, my question is: why wait so long? NASA expected it to survive for 3 months to a year max, why not just complete the mission charter and then say it broke? After all, are they not running a tremendous risk by letting them go for all these years? They could stop working at anytime, why wait for 5 years after the mission is complete?

Its not a matter of NASA "waiting" 5 years for the rovers to fail or for NASA to say "its broke". Those rovers were built to go way byond their mission parameter to ensure that they would at the very least last through the 90 day mission plan. They were "over-engineered", which gave both of them the ability to go that 5 year span. And yes they could fail at any time..point is..they didnt and lasted a good long time.

No one, I do mean no one can debate the fact that NASA has a habbit of having these strange mission failures. As to these two rovers, after going for so long, its not unusual for something to go wrong, but its also not unusual..given the history..that the rover is doing fine and we are being told another "its broke" excuse. I am one who doesnt follow the lemming off the cliff just becasue NASA says so. And I certianly do not forget their history of failures..some of which could have been prevented and saved lives.

Originally posted by TheDarkHorse
You know, there was a time here at ATS when InfaRedMan and SaviorComplex actually put effort into bring a compelling argument from the skeptical vantage point. I remember it well and respected you guys a great deal but now it seems that you and many other ‘skeptics’ have turned into nothing more than instigators.

Wearing out the quote button while whipping up one-liners is weak in my opinion. Another thing, you can use the

face all you want, doesn’t make it humorous.

Thank you, drive through.….

Nothing wrong with good skepticisim. But when the excuses used by NASA become repetitive..like the lol icons, they tend to get very old very fast.



Cheers!!!!

Hasn't it went above and beyond it's call to duty. It has to die sometime. Nothing last for ever.

Originally posted by Ant4AU
Hasn't it went above and beyond it's call to duty. It has to die sometime. Nothing last for ever.

Well sure it will poof out at some point..perhaps now is the time. But when you get NASA saying "it did not beam home its activity oh and by the way it didnt record Sunday's activity either"...well how are they going to know what the rover did or did not do when the rover did not call home and send that information to begin with?

Even their so called specific reason is contradicting.

That right there raises a red flag to me, and suggests that they are not telling us the entire truth..so I dont accept the "its broke" story.

Cheers!!!!

Where is the recorded data from the rover before it went off line?.. that might be able to clear up some things.

Originally posted by RFBurns

Well sure it will poof out at some point..perhaps now is the time. But when you get NASA saying "it did not beam home its activity oh and by the way it didnt record Sunday's activity either"

There's nothing contradicting there. It didn't beam home its weekend activities (meaning, stuff it did on Saturday and Sunday), and upon further investigation they found it didn't even record its activities on Sunday.

Like at work I send weekly status reports to my boss on Friday. This would be like if I forgot to send it to my boss and and he told me about it on Monday and I finally sent it to him but left Wednesday blank.

The elite are moving their million dollar homes to mars.
Move along - Nothing to see here - Little rover is broken.

reply to post by spinkyboo


haha yeah thats a good one, we can just about manage to crashland a probe onto the surface of mars to beam back data but the elites are building houses there, surely the technology that would require would be far, far in advance of anything we currently have.

For once NASA could be telling the truth & it's just gone to sleep but because of all the random lies they tell people nobody knows whats truth & whats lies,IMO 6 years is a long time so if it did start not sending info back to earth it could be because of age

I prefer to imagine it slowly rolling hand in hand with some other alien piece of hardware, in to the martian sunset.


Ok! So Im a romantic !


Respects

Originally posted by NatureBoy
reply to post by spinkyboo

 

haha yeah thats a good one, we can just about manage to crashland a probe onto the surface of mars to beam back data but the elites are building houses there, surely the technology that would require would be far, far in advance of anything we currently have.

Aha! I found the wood.
marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by alyosha1981

Originally posted by Chadwickus
lol perfectly called there IR Man!

I wouldn't think the rover starting to fail is acting strange?

It's operated well and truly past it's by date.

I think the JPL engineers knew the rovers would long outlast the 90 day given lifespan, the missions just gave them a chance to test out some advanced tech, and of course we should believe what NASA says right???

Exactly the 90-day life expectancy was ridiculous.

You people bashing the 'conspiracy' posters are funny. You're guilty of your own bashing and name calling. You have no proof of WTF happen to it either so your claims of it 'just giving out' etc. are just as ludicrous sounding. I'm on neither side of the fence, but I do find it so amusing the skeptical viewpoint sitting there and telling people they're wrong etc. when they have no proof of anything themselves. Now let's see if it magically starts up again, then your speculation, your guess, your theory, your opinion will have proven you to be ..ummmm , WRONG! ..and yours will be the only thing proven to be wrong.

Originally posted by nataylor

There's nothing contradicting there. It didn't beam home its weekend activities (meaning, stuff it did on Saturday and Sunday), and upon further investigation they found it didn't even record its activities on Sunday.

Are you so sure about that? Their report clearly says "did not beam home a record of its weekend activities...

The aging Mars rover did not beam home a record of its weekend activities and, more puzzlingly, apparently failed to even record any of its actions on Sunday, mission managers said.

...that implies the entire weekend...not just one day..and again, they would not know about Sunday's report if the thing didnt make the phone call to home...right?....RIGHT!

I wish people would stop making excuses for NASA and let NASA fess up to their lies.

It amazes me..people will believe the government is conspiring to round us all up into prison camps, impose martial law, declare a NWO, send out mind altering signals in tv's, buy up empty train box cars and fill them with shackles, but when it comes to NASA..these people will fight those of us who call out NASA"s lies and they side with NASA.

Well you cant have it both ways expecting just part of the government lying to you and the other not to be lying to you. Just because one part of it is named NASA and the other part of it is named CIA/NSA/FBI, does not negate the fact that they all fall under the umbrella called US Government.



Cheers!!!!

[edit on 29-1-2009 by RFBurns]

Originally posted by rhynouk
For once NASA could be telling the truth & it's just gone to sleep but because of all the random lies they tell people nobody knows whats truth & whats lies,

Exactly my point earlier!!! How the heck do we know what they say at any time is truth or a lie because of their track record!!!

Originally posted by rhynouk
IMO 6 years is a long time so if it did start not sending info back to earth it could be because of age

Also a point I made earlier. It very well could be poofing out and perhaps NASA is telling us the truth....for once. But again HOW are we to know they are actually telling us the truth? After decades of lying, and just because the rover is 6 years old..we declare them honest now and forget about that track record of lies and set aside all doubt now?

Ya right. Im sure most here would just let go of 30 years of lies from someone and suddenly trust what they tell you without any reservation to what they are saying now after the 30 years of lying to you. Uhh-huh..SURE.



Cheers!!!!

[edit on 29-1-2009 by RFBurns]

Originally posted by RFBurns


...that implies the entire weekend...not just one day..and again, they would not know about Sunday's report if the thing didnt make the phone call to home...right?....RIGHT!

Excellent job RF as always, NASA would have no idea that it never recorded Sunday if it failed to respond the ENTIRE WEEKEND. Nice sleuthery

[edit on 29-1-2009 by TheDarkHorse]

Originally posted by RFBurns

Originally posted by nataylor

There's nothing contradicting there. It didn't beam home its weekend activities (meaning, stuff it did on Saturday and Sunday), and upon further investigation they found it didn't even record its activities on Sunday.

Are you so sure about that? Their report clearly says "did not beam home a record of its weekend activities...

The aging Mars rover did not beam home a record of its weekend activities and, more puzzlingly, apparently failed to even record any of its actions on Sunday, mission managers said.

]

Looks like this is a case of poor reporting. If you read the actual press release, you'll see there's nothing there about "phoning home." It simply didn't execute the drive commands and didn't record main activities to the flash memory.

Phoenix takes a direct hit from a major regional dust storm,expect dirty solar panels plus the Seasonal Decline in Sunshine means Not enough Solar Arrays Energizing power Unit, "Phoenix needs help"


Source:

Dust storm activity and the seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's landing site meant that the craft's solar arrays couldn't churn up enough energizing power – and expected outcome after five months of exploration.

"We've got a rover with dirty solar panels that took a direct hit from a major regional dust storm, so that's serious business. But we don't know enough right now to say how serious," Squyres told me.

Phoenix can not find the Sun hhhhhmmmm sounds like Phoenix maybe Buried Alive

Source:

Spirit's mission controllers decided to tell the rover to find the sun with its camera on Tuesday to determine its location on Mars. Early yesterday, the rover beamed back that it had tried to follow the instructions of its human handlers, but couldn't find the sun.

Zelong.