Saw this on Michio Kaku's site before.
Impressive how they figured out the landing, but they didn't say what it's going to do when it gets there, which makes it a bit meh in the end
Well, for starters, it's about the size of a small car. Hence the need for such a sophisticated landing sequence. You can't just parachute down or bounce on a landing bag like the other two. The MSL will contain a much more advanced manipulator arm and drill to dig deeper into the soil and break open rocks, and a full range of spectrometer instruments to determine the composition of samples. Also note the lack of solar panels - it's packing plutonium.
obsidian wrote:Also note the lack of solar panels - it's packing plutonium.
Isn't that going to be a massive environmental hazard if it crashes on Earth? Wasn't that the reason for there being no nuclear-powered spacecraft? I read on the Wiki that it's non-fissile; it's still radioactive, though (that's how it works); isn't that still dangerous?
Damn, I didn't know the rover was so close to landing.
The video was a bit on the dramatic side, but a good reminder nonetheless. That power supply looks like it'll last for 14 years before power output drops significantly. I wonder how long the rover will last (assuming it survives the landing)?
[quote="YourGrandpa"]I'm satisfied with voicing my opinion and moving on.[/quote]
i was gonna mention it a day before it happened just so you morons might actually remember to check it out.
And yeah, having a set amount of energy is kind of disappointing since the previous rover was able to surpass all expectations ... kept going much longer than expected, and a big part of that wouldn't be possible without solar panels' "renewable" energy source.
Granted, this one is much bigger, it would probably need to haul around a massive amount of solar panel surface area, so it was probably not the best solution.
Transient wrote:Nah, a wind turbine would do the trick.
yes it would, were it not for the fact that surface atmospheric pressure on Mars is a fraction of what it is on Earth, thereby rendering turbines useless
Transient wrote:Nah, a wind turbine would do the trick.
yes it would, were it not for the fact that surface atmospheric pressure on Mars is a fraction of what it is on Earth, thereby rendering turbines useless
And here I thought that the only hurdle was the giant turbine sticking off the top of the rover.
Edit: I should scroll down all the way before replying. LOL Tsakali.
[quote="YourGrandpa"]I'm satisfied with voicing my opinion and moving on.[/quote]
Nice, this looks pretty wicked. I hope this bad boy lands safe and sound. I recall reading about the launch but I kinda forgot about it. The landing process seems quite complex to be fully automated but assuming they've thought it through properly we may have some nice feeds coming from Mars soon.
there is a pretty badass interactive solar system engine here with all kinds of info. shows where the rover is at right now, the speed / distance from mars etc.