Two weeks. The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has until Christmas to make it to a nice, sunny slope of a nearby plateau, where it will point its solar panels towards the Sun and park for the winter. Unfortunately, Spirit can't just drive. A recent dust storm on the Red Planet drained much of the rover's energy, so at this point it needs a day of rest for every day of travel.
Engineers knew this energy problem would come eventually. Solar panels need to be clean and free of debris to soak up sunlight. But the Red Planet hasn't been cooperating. Those massive dust storms deposit a fine layer of dirt on the panels, vastly reducing their energy-generating capacity.
Some stiff winds blew much of the dust off Opportunity's panels, but Spirit hasn't been so lucky. Spirit is down to 42 percent capacity. Still, though, it's amazing that they're even roving at all at this point. They were supposed to run out of juice several years ago.—Gregory Mone
Too bad there's not a translucent Teflon they can apply to the panels...
Posted by: Mark Schuster | December 12, 2007 at 04:56 AM
We thought you might be interested --
SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST
Inquiring into the Origin of Matter and Life
January-March 2008
Bhaktivedanata Institute's latest quarterly newsletter
is now available online.
You can download the January-March 2008 issue from:
http://scienceandscientist.org/current.php
____________ _________ _________ ____________ _________ _________ __
What's it about?
Modern science has generally been directed toward investigating
the material world, excluding consideration of the conscious
scientist who is essential to the whole process, since, of
course, the very existence of the scientific endeavor itself
depends upon consciousness. Complete scientific knowledge must
consequently include both objective science and subjective
consciousness.
In addition to other programs, Bhaktivedanta Institute's Science
and Scientist Newsletter is humbly offered to inspire scientists
and scholars to contribute their sincere efforts toward
developing this grand synthesis. The result will be valuable not
only for helping to better understand the "hard" problems of
science such as the nature and origin of life and the cosmos, the
mind-brain connection, artificial intelligence, etc. But the
pressing problems of ethics in science, world peace, and
interfaith dialog will also benefit from a more inclusive
scientific worldview.
In our modern era science and religion are the predominating
influences determining the fate of mankind. Promoting and
developing a culture of harmony between such diverse fields has
the potential to expand our conception of reality and advance
human knowledge in the new millennium, in which it is said the
study of life will be pre-eminent. Let us welcome the dawn of
that new epoch with great hope and determined endeavor.
____________ _________ _________ ____________ _________ _________ __
Newsletter Homepage: http://www.scienceandscientist.org
Newsletter Subscription:
http://www.scienceandscientist.org/subscribe.html
Please send comments/questions to:
editors@scienceandscientist.org
Posted by: SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST - Inquiring into the Origin of Matter and Life | April 09, 2008 at 06:39 AM
dame MBT sko herre MBT Sko MBT Amali
mbt sko
MBT M.Walk I tried to use youtube to e-mail my video to you on Jun 10, but that e-mail was not read. All I'm asking for is some sort of confirmation that my entry has been received. Please?
Posted by: mbtskovip | October 25, 2011 at 11:42 PM
This should have been seen long time ago. The conditions are not easy and it's very probably that the plan to be ruined.
Posted by: Cazare Brasov | January 09, 2012 at 05:04 AM