Hypography X Prize Entry

[Theory5]

Originally Posted by TheBigDog

The secondary objective is to make it last as long as possible and have ways of getting commercial payback from our efforts.

Bill

Just sell advertising space on the robots and the lander :-) some companies already do that, and people pay a pretty penny to advertise on stuff like that.

[TheBigDog]

Originally Posted by Theory5

Just sell advertising space on the robots and the lander :-) some companies already do that, and people pay a pretty penny to advertise on stuff like that.

That is partly how I would like to cover the cost of the whole operation.

Imagine this... we have a small group of functioning rovers on the moon. We have 78.5 square kilometers of space to play in and explore. We have accomplished all of the prize worthy mission objectives. Now what do we do? how about renting time on the rovers? How about doing things like using the rovers to write messages on the surface of the moon? For the right price we can do that. How about licensing fees for using our rovers in motion pictures? Who knows what possibilities exist? How about landing more advanced scientific equipment on a later mission that works in conjunction with the infrastructure of rovers and lander that we have established, and we collect a fee for that service? The immediate goal is the contest, but the payoff comes after that.

Bill

[Theory5]

writing stuff on the moon? how big? wont that ruin its surface? they would have to steer clear of the landing site from the other moon visits. I mean, the moon stays almost the same all the time. But that sounds like a great Idea. maybe we can bring back moon rocks for tests or somthing!

[TheBigDog]

You know what would be cool? A rover that burrowed. Exploring under the surface of the moon!

Bill

[Theory5]

that would be awsome!
but wouldnt that divert from what we are trying to do?

[TheBigDog]

Originally Posted by Theory5

that would be awsome!
but wouldnt that divert from what we are trying to do?

Yeah, not something I plan on doing with our current effort, unless that becomes a mission requirement.

Bill

[Jay-qu]

Lots of cool ideas been thrown around, thats great to see but there is a little misunderstanding going.

Pyro I think you where under the impression that we would be trying to beam energy from earth to the moon with a MASER setup - I think the idea was to have the lander collect solar energy and then beam it out to the rovers.

Kayra, the wavelength doesnt increase over distance, nor need it. You need a bigger antenna at larger distances because of the inverse square law - the further you get from the MASER the less energy will reach you per square meter, ie the energy 'spreads' out. Increasing the size of the antenna is one way to counteract this.

While all these ideas are great, I think they are outside the requirements. If the rovers are equipped with the best batteries we can give them, whose to say that they will need a recharge before they can fulfill the requirements? If it does they I would suggest supplementing the power requirements with solar. Whether the panels be on the rovers themselves or on the lander (supplied to the rovers via some recharge mechanism) would depend on how much of an issue dust is. Obviously it would be simplest to have the solar on the rovers, this also reduces the chance of failure if the rover can operate independently of the lander.

[Roadam]

Well maybe someone misunderstood me. I was suggersting a method for refilling the rover if it comes back to "base" without the need for moving parts which comes with dust hazzard.
There are ceritainly quite a few posibillities to consider. Do we want a self sufficient rover or not? If not, there is an option for long range transmition of energy where line of sight is important, and "back to base" option which possibly limits the range of a rover.
There is also a question concerning how much goals we want to complete and whether the batteries alone could supply enough electricity.
How much power would one rover even need to drive over lunar terrain?
And one more thing: big wheels also mean that there isnt much space for solar panels.

[Jay-qu]

Originally Posted by Jay-qu

. If the rovers are equipped with the best batteries we can give them, whose to say that they will need a recharge before they can fulfill the requirements?

A laptop battery with a 30-year lifespan | SCI FI Tech for Tuesday, October 02, 2007 | SCIFI.COM

with things like this around the corner, why not?

EDIT:well I read around about this, and apparently its not around the corner, but purely theoretical on this scale I found a few primary articles touting they had achieved a few nano-watts of power.. not very useful!

[GAHD]

Doesn't the inverse square law only apply to fields, and not coherent beams? divergence in minimal in a directed beam...

EDIT:finally! Commercial nuclear batteries! I want those for my future house...and car.