Mars Rovers

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by UncleAl

What have the mars rovers accomplished? Mars is boring. It started out as a shallow planetary sea of acidic magnesium sulfate, then dried and oxidized over a few billion years. That's all very nice as far as it goes. Now what?

Unknown discoveries await! Riiight. Mars, like downtown Detroit or Watts in Los Angeles, is exactly what you see. Get over it and move on.

I love it when you play devil's advocate Al; I think of you as the "Velvet Hammer". (one layer of velvet on a 500 Kilo hammer )
___Whether you push me or pull me, go I must (Yoda speak ) Anyway, I see it as the human spirit of exploration prevailing in the light of finance, politics, & ignorance. We go, because we want to know. If Mars is boring, we explore it to find why as we sharpen our skills at technology & cooperation in order to explore the interesting places.
___Put me down for not enough smilies as well.

[BlameTheEx]

Rovers are the future of space exploration. They are just so much cheaper than sending men. It would be interesting to compare them to the Apollo missions to the moon. At a guess they delivered as much science at a tiny fraction of the cost. They are a lot slower moving than people but they keep going for months, and now perhaps years. The moon missions could only stay for days.

Alexian is being a bit optimistic calling for earthworm probes. If you want to drill a hole you need a drilling rig. There is one planned for the next mobile for mars but I think it a mistake. Mars has already been drilled all over by meteorites.

Personally I would vote for a swarm of rovers with only evolutionary upgrades, rather than a completely new design. This is my wish list:

a) Unfolding solar panel "wings" to give more power. Air pressure is so low that we don't have to worry much about storm damage. They need to be motorised so that they can be aligned to the sun and be raised when travelling over difficult terrain.

b) An electron microscope.

c) Some sort of chromatography.

d) An attachment to the head for cleaning the solar cells.

e) A robot hand.

f) A linescan camera like the HRSC used on the mars express. Rotate slowly in a circle getting one vertical scan line per click of rotation and you get the perfect stereoscopic panoramic image with no pasting. The image would not be just in colour but spectroscopic.
Details here: http://solarsystem.dlr.de/Missions/e...ameraeng.shtml

g) Caterpillar treads.

[Turtle]

___The Rovers continue to break new ground; the image below shows the brightest material yet imaged by the rovers on Mars.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...-A721R1_br.jpg

Main Rover Page:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/

[Jay-qu]

Here is an explanation for why the mission has gone the way it has

Originally Posted by smthop.com

NASA Mars rover design engineer Joe Melko, suppressing a mischevious smile, explains

"Well, we've been telling the media that the twin Mars rovers were designed to last a hundred days, and that every day after that is an added unexpected bonus, but now that we've gone beyond the 200th day mark with Spirit, I think it's time we offer a more accurate explanation."

Melko took a stack of Star Trek photos from his desk, picking one showing the original Star Trek character Mister Scott talking to a younger actor

"Remember this episode? Mister Scott is explaining to the young engineer how to come across as a miracle worker. He says something like: 'Tell the captain it will take you 3 hours to fix the problem, lad, when you know it will only take about 1. That way, when you leisurely fix it in 2, you'll still come across as a miracle worker!'"

Melko took out a pair of wax Spock ears and put them on, giving the 'live long and prosper' symbol with his right hand

"Err...well, we did the same thing. We knew the twin rovers might even last a year on Mars, so we pulled a Scotty, so we'd look like heroes. We got the idea at a Star Trek convention in Orlando a few years back."

If nothing else, America's brilliant NASA engineers have once again illustrated their almost superhumanlike genius, -along with more than a trifle of geekishness-, but genius nonetheless.

http://www.smthop.com/articles1details.asp?NewsNum=374

but i will give them credit they are still going longer than they planned! hehe geeks

[Turtle]

Some new & very interesting layered formations encountered by Spirit have folks scratching their heads. I love rocks!


http://space.com/missionlaunches/060...ome_plate.html

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit.html

The Rovers will have company. Check your local NASATV for coverage

Ground controllers await the signal from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) that it has begun the crucial engine burn that will slow the spacecraft enough to take it into low Mars orbit between 160 miles (257 kilometers) and 200 miles (322 km) above the planet. They expect that signal March 10 at about 4:24 P.M. Eastern time.

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx