NASA’s solar-powered Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is beginning on Thursday what controllers expect to be frequent use of an overnight “deep sleep” mode to stretch the robot’s power supply. Opportunity has managed only one to two hours of activity on many recent days while it has been examining a stadium-sized impact crater from vantage points around the rim. Shutting down more completely overnight will conserve enough battery charge to add several hours of science operations during the day, according to Jim Erickson, Mars Exploration Rover deputy project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
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Mars Rover Mission Status
Posted by: Science Desk June 3, 2004 01:48 PMNASA’s solar-powered Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is beginning on Thursday what controllers expect to be frequent use of an overnight “deep sleep” mode to stretch the robot’s power supply. Opportunity has managed only one to two hours of activity on many recent days while it has been examining a stadium-sized impact crater from vantage points around the rim. Shutting down more completely overnight will conserve enough battery charge to add several hours of science operations during the day, according to Jim Erickson, Mars Exploration Rover deputy project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.