NASA Spirit Mars Rover Update: With Batteries Charged, Spirit is Ready for More
sol 1621-1627, July 25-31, 2008:
Spirit has fully recovered from a recent rundown in battery power. Energy has improved to levels not seen since sol (Martian day) 1604 (July 7, 2008). The hit in battery energy was primarily the result of data transmissions taking place later in the day, when less solar energy was available.
During the past week, rover planners eliminated the late communications sessions. Spirit is not scheduled to have another one until sol 1636 (Aug. 9, 2008). To mitigate the impact that one will have on power, rover planners plan to shorten the duration of data transmission from 20 minutes to only 10 minutes. This will allow sufficient time to get new instructions on board the rover while minimizing battery drain.
A transmitter problem thwarted data transmission on sol 1625 (July 29, 2008). The uplink from Earth was to have loaded activity plans and maintenance instructions for sols 1626, 1627, 1628 and 1629 (July 30-Aug. 2, 2008). The sequences already on board Spirit were designed with built-in contingency plans to handle just such an event. As a result, while Spirit continues the “runout” portion of the earlier master sequence, rover operators will send a new set of commands for sols 1630, 1631 and 1632 (Aug. 3-5, 2008) on sol 1629 (Aug. 2, 2008).
Spirit remains healthy, with all subsystems performing as expected as of sol 1626.
Sol-by-sol summary
In addition to using the panoramic camera to make daily measurements of dust-related changes in visibility, Spirit completed the following activities:
Sol 1621 (July 25, 2008): Spirit recharged the batteries.
Sol 1622: Spirit received instructions from Earth via the rover’s high-gain antenna and relayed data to NASA’s Odyssey orbiter via the rover’s UHF antenna.
Sol 1623: Spirit acquired images of sand formations with the rear hazard-avoidance and navigation cameras. The rover took six, time- lapse, movie frames in search of clouds with the navigation camera, as well as images of the sky (called “sky flats”) for calibration purposes.
Sol 1624: Spirit recharged the batteries.
Sol 1625: Spirit took spot images of the sky for calibration purposes with the panoramic camera and acquired movie frames in search of clouds with the navigation camera.
Sol 1626: Spirit completed a horizon survey with the panoramic camera and relayed data to Odyssey for transmission to Earth.
Sol 1627 (July 31, 2008): Spirit recharged the batteries.
Odometry:
As of sol 1626 (July 30, 2008), Spirit’s total odometry remained at 7,528.0 meters (4.7 miles).
