Let's discuss interesting Mars rover tech facts

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We should dismantle NSA, and restructure them. Because they are frankly a waste of money at this point.

Seeing this, just reminds me that the whole mars effort is a waste. Like look at that shit, all desert, all waste.

mars rovers are gay

"Oh look at me I am some faggy robot on mars and I look at rocks and wear out eventually"

that is my impression of mars rovers

>Sure, but what resources does it have?
does it matter

if the surface was littered with nothing but gold and diamonds it still would not be profitable to bring them back here

I wonder what you think of satellite dishes.

nice

They're gay.

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>Mars
Literally the most why planet if fascination. More interested in Europa or some other gas giant moon than fucking Mars.

Rockets are extremely expensive and every gram counts.

>Rockets are extremely expensive and every gram counts.
then they should have made them out of aerogel dumbass

>"Oh look at me I am some faggy human on a computer and I look at porn and wear out eventually"
that is my impression of you

It's undoubtedly far easier to work on terraforming Mars than it is to deal with intense radiation around Jupiter and drill through kilometers of ice to reach whatever sub-surface liquid water may or may not exist on Europa.
Both are worth exploring though, likewise for Titan as well.

If you mean Jupiter moons, they're a bit too far + Jupiter is a huge asteroid magnet which also increases risks for its moons.

I'd guess pretty much same as on earth aside from organic material deposits (oil, gas, coal)

Yes, obvously. But you don't use the metal with the lowest mechanical wear tolerance for wheels of all the fucking thing, they could've done them with titanium, same weight and not butter resistance. It's not like they didn't spend literal billions on this thing.

>Both are worth exploring though, likewise for Titan as well.
thank you for your opinion

Then think of Mars as a stop-gap between us and those moons. Jupiter's pretty fuckin' far and it's difficult to even have unmanned missions go there from Earth. Mars has much lower gravity + all the stuff you need to build shit to go further out + it itself is further out

I doubt anyone here will have the NASA insight but I just couldn't get this off my mind.

If accumulation of soil, dust, debris/etc. on the solar panel array is what ends up rendering our rovers inoperable, why is it so hard for us to create a system to clean the solar panels?

My suggestion, though rudimentary, would be to design a system using a small motor and gearbox and essentially attach a brush to a rotating arm to function as the Rover's version of windshield wipers that we'd see here on Earth. Or find some way to use compressed air to jettison the dust and improve array efficacy.

(disclaimer: I work in medicine and therefore have little to no scope of the intricacies of aerospace travel and/or engineering)

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It's really just a matter of counting every ounce. If they installed the wipers they'd have to ditch some scientific instrument. At this point though the issue is obsolete as Curiosity and the next planned rover use RTG for power generation.

This is so stupid, mars is closer to the sun. Shouldn't we focus our efforts on the moon instead, and use that as a station for future expeditions. Mars is not worth the resources.

>mars is closer to the sun
Obvious bait, but I like where your head is at.

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>Rockets are expensive!
>Let's save some money by giving it aluminium wheels
>Did it break again? Well, let's send another expensive rocket!

Thanks, also I am no expert on space.
I'm just a lowly IT student, so fuck what I know.
But, I like the idea of colonizing the moon.

I think of all the amazing tech on the rovers they didn't include a mechanism for removing dust from the solar collectors.
They knew dust was there. It was obvious that a dust build-up could reduce the power available and yet nobody thought to do something about it.
Was it the short mission timeline? Has anything been done for future missions?
The other problem that was fully predictable was the rover's wheels. They broke. They really weren't up to the task.

You're a waste.

If all the the rovers on mars were lined up end to end, they would circle the planet 0.0000000003 times.

Titanium is a bit heavier than aluminum.
Space travel is costs like $25,000 a pound so you see why they did that.
Aluminum when properly heat treated is also VERY strong.
With proper coatings, Aluminum is able to handle most corrosion.
And Ali is also vastly easier to work with, especially when it comes to Forming and Welding.
Ever try to drill through Any aerospace grade 6AL-4V super alloy titanium?
It's a bitch man. Not fun.
I'm talking 3-4 Cobalt drill bits just to drill a single hole.

The problem with the moon is that it is a lot harsher for permanent habitation and would also likely require much more support from Earth to remain viable. Temperature extremes on the surface, extremely low gravity, month-long day/night cycles, lack of volatiles, lack of atmosphere, the list goes on.

That's not to say that the Moon should be ignored, if anything the experience gained from starting there would only make Mars easier, but it's quite easy to understand why Mars, with a paltry but still relatively substantial atmosphere, normal day/night cycles, higher gravity, more varied resources, and more general potential to make habitable in the long term draws more interest.

It's not like we're really ignoring one for the other anyway, there's a lot of interest in both among both government and private entities.

At least I am of some use to society.
Can you say the same fuck face?

Cheap aluminum wheels make it less likely Martian niggers will steal them.

>At least I am of some use to society.
Clearly

>Was it the short mission timeline?
Yes, it was 90 days. Did the rover last longer than 90 days? Then there was no need to waste space on wipers.
>Has anything been done for future missions?
Yes, they run on heat generated from radioactive decay.
>The other problem that was fully predictable was the rover's wheels. They broke. They really weren't up to the task.
Again, the task was 90 days. They far exceeded what was required.

Ow my feelings. Hey, fuck you guy.

It's also a huge literal magnet with lethal radiation belts.
The wheels are not what wore out you ape.
The rover already lived well past it's life expectancy. Would have probably suffered mechanical failure soon anyways.
>literally doesn't know the planet order something taught in kindergarten
It all lasted well past the designed lifetime of the rover. Everything else was a bonus.

Nice green screen

How do you even take a picture like that?

It is over $120,000 a pound to get something to mars at it's closest approach. Rubber tires also would not be able to handle the temperature swings.

Titanium also has very poor resistance to heat.
It's really not the miracle metal people make it to be.

I think they mounted a camera on the lander that delivered it.

Same way a selfie stick works. It isn't one photo. It is made of many smaller ones.

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Yup, mars still looks gay. also source: mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/

This attitude is exactly why Millennials will never achieve anything.
Go back to posting selfies on Facebook.

Imagine being this retarded. Maybe get with the times, ya old fart. The whole space effort is a waste of time and resources.

just like you

They design everything to be as light as possible yet last the target duration of the mission.

If they want a longer mission they don't just have to fix one or two potential issues, they would need to beef up nearly every component.
And they are running on a tight budget because all the taxes go to fighting wars and paying pensions for boomers.

>gold and diamonds
gold's and diamonds' price is based on scarcity, so the price would fall dramatically if you found that much of both.

Aerospace fag here, ur retarded.
Titanium has a retarded good resistance to heat and Corrosion.
Afterburners we're all Ti until we switched to Inconel in the 80s.
Any Afterburner has to withstand 3,000F in reheat. (Boundary air layers keep shit from melting)
Aged inconel 625 or 718 is basically the best alloy for high temp strength without going to ceramics.

Didn't realize it was 120K a lb.
Guess getting to orbit is cheaper than Mars.