Aging of the NASA Mars rover Spirit has a bit more power under the hood thanks to some Martian dust wipe that winds its vital solar panels.
The practice of cleaning occurred earlier this month and was discovered by engineers scan data subsystem power of the Spirit.
“We will be able to use this energy to do much more driving,” said Colette Lohr, a Rover mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. “Our records have been averaging about 50 minutes and the energy is usually the limiting factor. We may be able to increase the units for an hour and a half. ”
The last time the winds of the Spirit was scoured clean solar in June 2007, but a large dust storm on Mars at the end of this year new sand piled on top of the Rover, mission managers said.
Thanks to the recent winds of Mars, Spirit on a daily power levels rose to 240 watt-hours, an increase of about 30 watt-hours, said the administrators of the mission. By comparison, 30 watt-hours is the same amount of energy used by a 30-watt light bulb for one hour.
“It may not sound like much, but it is a significant increase,” said Jennifer Herman rover engineering team, who first discovered the power boost the study of the data transmitted by the Spirit at home February 6 – the rover to Martian 1812 days to explore the red planet.
Before the cleanup event, Spirit was generating about 210 watt-hours of power, with only 25 percent of the sunlight that penetrates to the layer of dust on the surface coating of solar cells mounted. After cleaning, the amount of sunlight reaches rose nearly 28 percent.
Spirit needs about 180 watt-hours to survive on the Martian surface and maintain contact with their human handlers on Earth. The other 30 watt-hours nearly doubles the amount of power now has the Mars rover driving through or use of scientific instruments and robotic arm, mission managers said.
Spirit is rolling through a low, rocky plateau called “Home Plate”, which is in the Gusev crater landing site of the rover on Mars. Originally built for a planned mission of 90 days, its twin Spirit and Opportunity robotic have spent more than five years of Martian exploration of their landing sites on opposite sides of the planet.
Both Spirit and Opportunity have had some aches and pains associated with their unexpected longevity in the surface of Mars. More recently experienced a strange attack of amnesia Spirit andalusia recording and not a day of activities for the flight controllers on Earth last month.
Spirit has recovered from the fault and driven about 30 feet (9 meters) after overcoming a stubborn rock that blocked his path at the end of January. Rover scientists hope Spirit guides the other part of his “Home Plate” territory in the coming weeks.
On the other side of Mars, Spirit of the double opportunity of driving is doggedly through the plains of Meridiani Planum landing site, as a monster toward the crater called Endeavor. Last week, took some chances in 446 feet (nearly 136 meters) in one of a long series of sets en route to the crater. The rover has visited several craters, each one bigger than the last, in its more than five years of Mars exploration.
Related posts:
