Still Shining
The deck of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit was so dusty that it almost blended into the dusty background in this image assembled from frames taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) during the period from sol 1,355 through sol 1,358 (Oct. 26-29, 2007).
However, Spirit continues to soldier on and in recent weeks, increasing solar power has enabled Spirit to complete more science activities. Spirit has finished the 360-degree, full-color view of its winter surroundings, known as the "Bonestell panorama," and acquired extra frames at super resolution to enhance details in the imagery. The rover also has documented seasonal changes in the atmosphere by measuring argon gas with the alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer.
The tradeoff has been that by funneling most available power into science activities, Spirit has not had much power for sending data to Earth. That is about to change, because Spirit's on-board memory is nearly full. Instead of sending data only every fourth day, Spirit will begin relaying data every day to NASA's Odyssey orbiter for transmission to Earth.
Rover operators will use the data to plan Spirit's first, post-winter drive to adjust the rover's position to keep the solar panels facing the sun. The move will put the rover in optimum position before solar conjunction, when Earth and Mars will be on opposite sides of the sun and communication will not be possible. Solar conjunction will take place on Martian days, or sols, 1745-1760 (Nov. 29-Dec. 15, 2008).
The dust factor -- the percentage of light penetrating dust on Spirit's solar arrays -- has remained steady. Only 32 percent of the sunlight reaching the arrays penetrates the dust to generate electricity.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
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