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Posted by Geoffrey on March 25, 2006, 4:51 am
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> Amazingly enough, it's that time of year again on Mars. I've seen a
> number of hints as to how to get Spirit into position to survive the
> upcoming winter by spending it on a properly-tilted slope.
That was originally my suggestion. Probably my most significant
contribution to the mission :/
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> But Opportunity seems to have far fewer... opportunities. The last
> winter, it stayed on the correct side of a sharply angled crater, but it
> looks to have far fewer such options now.
> So has anyone seen any speculation on how (or if?) Opportunity will
> survive the Martian winter?
Opportunity is a bit closer to the equator than Spirit, so it's not a
desperate problem quite as soon as it is for Spirit. We're heading for
an enormous crater, Victoria, about 2 km southeast. I don't know how
much people have discussed Victoria (it's been so far away for so long
that people have rather forgotten about it), but it's mentioned from
time to time as the long-term destination in the status reports, such
as the March 11 report:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html
Here's the picture of the route, where you can see how huge it is:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/images.cfm?id=1826
--
Geoffrey A. Landis
http://www.sff.net/people/geoffrey.landis
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