Comments on: How to Drive the Mars Rovers, Part 1: Rover Updates

By: MarsFKA

MarsFKA — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:57:08 +0000

My wife and I travelled from NZ to watch the Opportunity launch. It was a good thing that we planned for three weeks in Florida, because, instead of launching two nights after we arrived, it finally got away three nights before we flew home. It was a close-run thing and the sight and sound of that glorious rocket rising into a clear night sky will stay with us for the rest of our lives. We have closely followed the career of "our" Rover since then and we are delighted that both of them have endured far beyond their use-by date.

By: Spoodle58

Spoodle58 — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 12:01:07 +0000

orrery66 Says:
can we build rovers that would survive on Venus?

A rover for Venus, now that sounds like a challenge, I honestly have no idea if we could build such a thing, but in the search for life on Venus a balloon or fleet of balloons for Venus would be better suited.

KevinM Says:
Also, it's time to give up these silly "solar energy" powered rovers. That's idealism from the seventies.

I agree to that statement, nuke powered rovers, so theres no power sharing or having to wait to do something, lots of power to do lots of science.

By: KevinM

KevinM — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 05:03:29 +0000

Certainly they can include a brush if they have the room and foresight.

How 'bout a rover on Titan? Too cold to function?

Also, it's time to give up these silly "solar energy" powered rovers. That's idealism from the seventies.

By: orrery66

orrery66 — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:44:45 +0000

I know the Venera craft did not last long on Venus all those years ago. But with today's technology, can we build rovers that would survive on Venus?

By: Spoodle58

Spoodle58 — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:43:49 +0000

Looking forward to you making it to Endeavour crater, hope your team gets there ok.

By: alphonso

alphonso — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:30:25 +0000

Good work Scott!
These tough ol' girls just keep rollin' on.

By: Feenixx

Feenixx — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:33:43 +0000

Ah, the dust…. and it would have been so easy to do something about it… and what a silly oversight…. NOT!

Please let us remember that those little robots "have been at it" TWENTY times longer than expected… and marvel at the fact that they are still "doing things".

I'm impressed.

BTW: my camera has an ultrasonic vibrator to shake dust off the imaging chip. It uses very little power….. perhaps NASA could get in touch with Olympus about licensing the technology, for developing a larger version? Then again, the next rover doesn't have solar panels….

By: Scott Maxwell

Scott Maxwell — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:59:23 +0000

@pmf71 We certainly wanted to include some mechanism to clean off the solar panels. Unfortunately, we simply couldn't get anything working in time, and we'd have had to remove a science instrument in order to make room for such a mechanism anyway. Given that we're now five years into our three-month mission, with all of the mission's original goals long since met, it's hard to argue with that decision.

Also, the arm can't reach most of the deck, so even if the arm had some dust-cleaning mechanism such as a brush, we'd be able to clear off only a small area at best. (A fan wouldn't work too well because the Martian atmosphere is so thin.)

It's a hard problem!

By: pmf71

pmf71 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:35:35 +0000

You know, i thought they would have included a small soft anti-static brush with long bristles on the rover's arm to carefully wipe most of the dust off in one or two strokes, i know they can do this without damaging anything else.

Even a small, high revving 1 watt fan would have done the trick. Point and blast kind of thing.

By: Astrofiend

Astrofiend — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:35:15 +0000

Can I have a go?