Summaries

Synopsis

In 2003 twin robots Opportunity and Spirit were sent to Mars. They were expected to live for 90 days.Once the robot is turned on, it has its own life. There are unexpected issues.

They are controlled by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. Jennifer Trosper is the mission manager. Rob Manning is the lead systems engineer. Ashley Stroupe is the rover driver. Goal of the Mars program is to establish if there ever was life on Mars. They were following the water. In 1970's NASA sent the Viking missions, 2 orbiters and 2 lander to get a first close look at Mars.Steve Squyres was a scientist on the Viking mission. The orbiters saw signs of past water flowing on mars. Steve started writing proposals to NASA to build a rover to look at the Martian rocks up close and determine signs of organics. All his proposals failed. JPL picked up the proposal of Steve's rover and their lander and presented it to NASA.The goal was to produce 2 identical, autonomous, rovers that could survive on Mars for 90 Sols. The launch window is decided by the alignment of the planets. If you miss it, the next launch window comes in 26 months.

Kobie Boykins was the chief engineer on the rovers. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu is the robotics engineer. The rover was given wheels, a power supply, cameras and a robotic arm with many instruments loaded on it to detect for signs of life. Height of the rover was 5 feet 2 inches, and the cameras looked like eyeballs. The rover was good, but heavy. Landing it on mars was the next issue. The landing system had big airbags that inflated, covered the rover entirely, and bounced around the surface till it came to a halt. In the first tests, Martian rocks ripped the air bags right off.Parachutes were another challenge. They kept being torn to shreds. its 10 months to launch. Meanwhile Spirit is also failing its test, while Opportunity does perfectly.

Launch day. Spirit launches on June 10th 2003. Opportunity on July 7th, 2003. Travel time was 6.5 months. They got hit by the largest series of solar flares in the solar system, in the known history. The flares have particles with enough energy to kill a human being. The particles slam into the rovers and corrupt their software. Both rovers had to be rebooted. it worked and they rebooted. By this time, 2/3rd of the missions to mars had failed. Just 4 years ago NASA launched a polar lander and a climate orbiter, both failed.

Spirit and Opportunity were going to land on opposite sides of Mars on Jan 3rd, 2004, and Jan 24th, 2004, respectively. The communication time back to Earth is 10 mins, so the rovers have to navigate atmospheric entries on their own. Heat shields manage temperatures up to 1600 Celsius. Then Parachutes open to bring down the speed further. Then the heat shield is ditched. The lander then rappels down the back shell on a 20 m rope. air bags inflate. The retro rockets on the back shell fire and slows the rover down to 0 mph. The chord is cut, and the lander bounces on the surface till it comes to a complete stop.

Spirit lands first (Gusev crater) and gives a signal back to JPL. JPL erupts in joy. Opportunity follows 3 weeks later (Meridiani Planum). Images start pouring back in to Earth. Opportunity's first images included those of bedrock, which is clear evidence of past water flows on Mars.NASA thought Gusev was bedrock, but all Spirit could find was lava rock. Opportunity's landing site was covered with little round things, like blueberries in a muffin. They were made of hematite, which is a mineral formed in the presence of water. But the water was very acidic, so was there life on Mars? Opportunity climbs out of the Eagle crater.Spirit's site was much colder, while Opportunity was near the equator of Mars. Spirit touches a particular rock and then drops dead. Its flash memory on board has somehow become corrupted. she has been crashing and rebooting all night. Her batteries were drained. But somehow Spirit pulls through and comes back alive.

JPL felt that in 90 days enough Martian dust would accumulate on the solar panels so that the batteries wont recharge and the rovers would eventually die. But Martian tornadoes fly through Opportunity & Spirit and cleans its solar panels to the same shine on the day they landed.The rovers set out to see Mars. Spirit headed to the Columbia hills. Opportunity heads to the Endurance crater to find deeper bedrock. The endurance crater is deeper than the eagle but has steeper walls as well. The Opportunity slides down the walls, but barely manages to avoid crashing into a giant rock in its way. Opportunity's software program detected the threat and responded appropriately. Once Endurance was mapped, the JPL team wants to map the Victoria crater, which will take 2 years of travel time just to get there.

Sol 445 and Opportunity is on its way to the Victoria crater. It gets stuck in soft sand. The engineers reverse the drive and tell Opportunity to go full speed back. But it only gets worse. but then suddenly on Sol 484, Opportunity is able to extract itself free. It gets to Victoria crater 2.5 years into mission life.Spirit was exploring Columbia hills, but its wheels had been damaged on hard rocks. Then the right front wheel failed. Winter was approaching and in a Martian winter the rovers use much of their energy to keep the instruments above a certain temperature. So, they try to drive her backwards to a tall hill to keep it close to the sun.Sol 1226, a huge dust storm hits Opportunity. Opportunity survives the storm and Spirit wakes up after the winter. But the team is still looking for Ph neutral water for signs of life.

The public was fascinated with the rovers at this point. On Sol 1900, 5 years into the mission, Spirit got stuck in soft sand, and another wheel broke. Winter was approaching. On Sol 2196, the JPL team puts Spirit to sleep. Spirit doesn't wake up the next morning.Opportunity is still going. The next mission was a huge crater called the Endeavor, but it was many years of driving away. On its way, Opportunity finds 3 meteorites. It has outlasted 4 Martian winters but is sleeping more. 7 years into the mission and Opportunity is 2 Kms away from the Endeavour crater. Oppy starts to show signs of aging with dust between crevices of the cables. One of its shoulder arms gets hard to move. She also started losing her memory. Oppy manages to reach the endeavor crater.

Sol 3300, 9 years into the mission. It finds evidence of clay formed in relatively neutral Ph water. Oppy explores the crater for 4 more years and finds clear evidence that water was a huge part of Martian history. Year 14 and Sol 5000 comes around. The team takes a selfie of Oppy. Another dust storm hits Oppy. Oppy goes dark on Sol 5111. The dust finally clears on 5292. The team hasn't heard from the rover in 6 months. But Oppy doesn't wake up this time. They try one last time on Sol 5352. The journey came to an end.NASA launches the next rover, Perseverance.