Opportunity enters Perseverance Valley
Just prior to the drop in communications this week because of the Sun’s position between the Earth and Mars, Opportunity was ordered down into Perseverance Valley, where it will sit until the return of full communications.
Opportunity entered Perseverance Valley on the west rim of Endeavour crater. The rover is positioned within the valley where she will spend the solar conjunction period.
Solar conjunction is when the Sun comes between Earth and Mars, which occurs about once every 26 months. During this time, there will be diminished communications to Opportunity. More on solar conjunction here: https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/allaboutmars/nightsky/solar-conjunction/
Two weeks of commanding have been uploaded to the rover to keep her active during solar conjunction with short communications with the Mars orbiters during the period.
The image on the right, reduced to show here, was taken by the rover’s navigation camera looking back uphill at the crater’s crest and the rover’s tracks in the valley. For the scientists the tracks are important because they reveal what the surface of the valley is like, which will help them determine whether it was formed from flowing water, flowing ice, or wind.
Even more significant, this initial drive into the valley means the science team has decided that either the wheel issues in June were not serious enough to prevent them from making this downhill trip, or the science is important enough that they are willing to risk the rover to get that science.
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Just prior to the drop in communications this week because of the Sun’s position between the Earth and Mars, Opportunity was ordered down into Perseverance Valley, where it will sit until the return of full communications.
Opportunity entered Perseverance Valley on the west rim of Endeavour crater. The rover is positioned within the valley where she will spend the solar conjunction period.
Solar conjunction is when the Sun comes between Earth and Mars, which occurs about once every 26 months. During this time, there will be diminished communications to Opportunity. More on solar conjunction here: https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/allaboutmars/nightsky/solar-conjunction/
Two weeks of commanding have been uploaded to the rover to keep her active during solar conjunction with short communications with the Mars orbiters during the period.
The image on the right, reduced to show here, was taken by the rover’s navigation camera looking back uphill at the crater’s crest and the rover’s tracks in the valley. For the scientists the tracks are important because they reveal what the surface of the valley is like, which will help them determine whether it was formed from flowing water, flowing ice, or wind.
Even more significant, this initial drive into the valley means the science team has decided that either the wheel issues in June were not serious enough to prevent them from making this downhill trip, or the science is important enough that they are willing to risk the rover to get that science.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
We don’t have a relay satellite at L4 or L5?
Nope. It costs a lot of money to launch a satellite. Since there is, as far as I know, no scientific value for one to sit at a LaGrange point, no one has seen fit to invest the money in sending one there. I would have suggested the possibility of using a polar orbiting solar satellite to bounce communications over/under the sun, but as I recall, Ulysses was the only one in polar orbit and is no longer functioning. As it stands, it’s more cost effective just to put up with the two weeks of down time than it would be to launch a satellite for the sole purpose of relaying communications during the brief times of solar conjunction with other planets.