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Robots Run Amok on Mars

Though they have yet to come across any little green men, two robotic devices from NASA have been checking out rocks and other geologic interests on Mars since their launch in 2003. The rovers, named Spirit and Opportunity, are the stars of an ongoing robotic space mission officially called the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, or MER.

Originally, the rovers were to complete a three month stint on Mars studying rocks and soil to try to determine if water had ever existed on the planet. That actually was 90 Martian days, or “sols,” which translates roughly into 24 hours plus 39 minutes in earth time. As an interesting side note, the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories) people working with the rovers also work on sol time, which means their days became increasingly out of sync with earth time as the project progressed. A daily meeting set at 18:00 sol could mean showing up with your latte and notebook, ready to go to work at 5:22 a.m. earth time one day, then at 6:02 a.m. the next.

The whole time thing can get so confusing, a lot of the staff bought special watches that run on Mars time. (Note: do not bother looking for these on ebay.) Plus, no one expected the exploration to run beyond the initial 90-day period, and here they are, years later, still at it. It might be assumed that the scientists are, 1) thrilled that they can continue to play with robots on Mars indefinitely, and 2) happy to be employed in this economy – but what about wife and kids at home? JPL has not disclosed a spike in the divorce rate of its employees, but you have to wonder.

In the meantime, Spirit and Opportunity didn’t realize they’d signed up for a Mars marathon, either. Everyone thought Mars would be a tough gig for the robots, but they seemed to thrive in the Martian landscape. A surprising phenomenon the scientists dubbed a “cleaning event” actually has prolonged the robots’ lives and effectiveness. When the Martian winds blow, they sweep the dust off the robots’ solar energy panels, and lo and behold – the little guys are like Energizer bunnies, ready to roam the Martian landscape yet again.

Another remarkable feat is that the robots have grown smarter during their stay on Mars. Initially, they were programmed to act almost like mechanical geologists, reaching to pick up interesting rocks, cracking them open to check out the insides, taking pictures of the landscape, and so on. However, six or seven years taking pictures of dirt and smashing rocks is a long time, even for geologists. In second grade, I once spent a morning cracking open rocks in the driveway with my friend Timmy Geho and that was quite enough. Eventually the ice cream truck tootled down the street creating a welcome diversion, as you can imagine. But I digress.

In this case, when it became apparent that Spirit and Opportunity were bored out of their gourds, the research team knew it was time to come up with new activities for the pair. The first sign of trouble, by the way, was in 2004 when Deep Space Network lost contact with Spirit. The scientists initially blamed the silence on a thunderstorm over Australia, but the storm passed and Spirit remained stubbornly mute for ten more days. It turned out that Spirit had memory overload – as in, way too much information about rocks – and really had just had it. Fortunately, the scientists were able to reformat the robot’s flash memory (who knew they had jump drives in space?!). Spirit felt much better and was ready to return to a new, more challenging work schedule.

Though Opportunity had continued to diligently explore without complaint, they also upgraded its memory with a patch, just to be safe.

The robots have accomplished far more than anyone dreamed early on, and confirming that water most likely existed on Mars was just the start. After wandering hither and yon and sending back more information about the Martian landscape than even NASA probably felt was newsworthy, Spirit’s front right wheel suddenly stopped working in 2006. It dragged itself to a little slope to wait out the long Martian winter, but Spirit was still stuck in place when the spring sun returned. If the little guy can get its panels tilted toward the sun to soak up a little more energy, it may serve more time as a static science station, but things were still up in the air last month.

Opportunity functioned effectively more than 20 times longer than was first expected, thanks to the cleaning events, and proudly discovered the first meteor on another planet. Thanks to the longevity of the feisty robots, NASA continues to study earth’s neighbor, the mysterious red planet, Mars.

And those little green men can’t stay in hiding too much longer, do you think?