Kill the rover Opportunity. Mission Possible Bashny.Net

A few days ago rover celebrated his 11th year at the surface of Mars. And despite its age, state of health of the rover is excellent, allowing the rover to climb to Cape Tribulation and make a panorama of the surrounding area.



Initially, it was assumed that the rover will last 90 Martian days. But the rover spent almost 10 Earth years more than planned. Unfortunately, the rover remains "live" only until 30 September. And the reason in the world.

Published on February 2 & quot; NASA FY 2016 budget document i> & quot ;, in which there is no funding for the rover. This is the second year that the Obama administration is trying to literally "kill Opportunity». Last year, the White House in NASA FY 2015 budget document i> offered to cut off funding Opportunity. Fortunately, despite the stated intentions, management NASA managed to find the necessary funds for the extension of the mission. Now the White House again proposed a "zero out" financing Opportunity and not only him - Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has to stop working in 2016. Although both devices are working fine.


But the misfortune planetologists not end - Mars Odyssey orbiter, which serves as a relay station transmitting most of the data from the Opportunity and significant from Curiosity, will be disconnected from the "financing" in 2017.
In general, the Obama administration proposed NASA's budget of $ 18, 5 billion for 2016 fiscal year. Despite the fact that NASA's "Journey to Mars" is a priority for the LRO and Opportunity is not allocated a dollar. It is hoped that after an independent scientific assessment of the results of the summer of 2015 the rover will be evaluated as "excellent" and may be allocated additional funding. But there is no guarantee that this will happen. Priority for funding are new missions and ISS.
If the mission is extended, the purpose of the study will be a montmorillonite mineral deposit discovered to orbit a few dozen meters from the current position of the rover. This mineral can testify that this place could not be acidic water, which was favorable to the emergence of the Martian microorganisms.

On the other hand the White House insists that the rover is old and not able to continue to fulfill the mission: "After a long and fruitful mission, Opportunity began to show signs of its age, including recent problems with its flash memory," said the NASA FY 2016 budget document .

Indeed there was a problem, but it was successfully solved and the rover as in the previous 11 years in operation performs weekly driving distance.

To date, the total distance traveled rover is 41, 88 km, including 2, 7 kilometers covered during the last financial year. That is not bad for a device "to show signs of its age." July 27, 2014, NASA announced that the rover broke the record for the "Lunokhod-2", although "Soviet Ferrari" ran this distance in a few months and could go a hundred by the end of the mission, if not for the unfortunate crater prematurely interrupted his career.




Source: geektimes.ru/post/245512/