There’s a robot about to complete a marathon on Mars!
The finishing line could be hiding some of the most exciting science yet.
Hello!
I’m Ian O’Neill, space producer for Discovery News.
I want to focus on an awesome little NASA robot that has become an extraterrestrial
off-roading champion.
Already a Solar System distance record holder -- after beating the 1972 driving record held
by the Soviet Lunokhod 2 moon rover last year -- NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity is about
to reach its next big milestone.
Since landing on Mars it has traversed over 26 miles of Martian terrain.
When it reaches 26.219 miles, it will have roved the equivalent distance of an Olympic
marathon.
Opportunity landed on Mars on January 26, 2004, and was designed to last only 3 months.
But 11 years later, the rover is still soldiering on.
Although it’s having some age-related illnesses, it’s showing little sign of slowing down.
Sadly, its sister rover Spirit, which landed on the other side of Mars in 2004, was lost
in 2010 after becoming stuck in a sand trap.
Although Opportunity continues to do amazing science in the harsh alien environment, some
of its instrumentation is failing.
Most recently, it has been afflicted with some serious memory problems.
Opportunity’s computer was never designed to be used for this long, so a section of
the robot’s flash memory has become corrupt.
This causes all kinds of operational issues.
Data keeps getting lost and unexpected reboots have hindered its progress.
But Opportunity’s mission team have now switched the rover to a “no-flash” mode
- This is where the day-to-day science data is uplinked to NASA’s Mars Odyssey and Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter satellites.
The data is then sent to Earth without being saved to the flash memory before the rover
powers down each night.
Over the coming weeks, NASA engineers hope to send new software up to the rover’s computer
in an effort to fix this memory issue.
But for now, Opportunity is doing what it does best -- conquering Mars.
Opportunity will likely cross the marathon “finishing line” over the coming days
at a location nicknamed “Marathon Valley.”
Orbital images of the region has revealed that Marathon Valley contains interesting
clay deposits that Opportunity will be tasked to study.
At the entrance to the valley is a small impact crater nicknamed “Spirit of Saint Louis
Crater,” so Opportunity will make a pit stop there before rolling on.
The mission has studied clay deposits around Endeavour Crater before, revealing that Mars
was a lot wetter than it is now.
But not only that, these clay minerals would have formed in water with a neutral pH -- in
other words, water we could drink.
Both Opportunity and Mars’ newest resident Curiosity have uncovered compelling evidence
of extensive water that would have existed on Mars millions of years ago.
So these surface missions, along with the growing number of orbiting Mars satellites,
are trying to piece together Martian past habitability and why the red planet turned
from a wet world with all the components for life, to a now dusty and frozen world that
seems inhospitable for life as we know it.
So as Opportunity rolls into its 12th year on Mars, soon crossing the marathon finishing
line, we’ll be cheering her on, hoping for more awesome science from one very tough little
robot.
Is Opportunity your favorite Mars rover?
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