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Rovers May Survive Martian Winter

Posted by timothy on from the those-things-wake-up-hungry dept.

yokem_55 writes "According to this article on Yahoo News, Mars rover engineers are beginning to consider the possibility that the rovers may be able to survive the oncoming Martian winter in a hibernation mode, and then return to activity when spring returns to the red planet. The article ends with a quote from Steve Squires speculating that, 'we're looking at the final demise of these vehicles perhaps as late as the onset of our second winter on Mars.'"

1 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Re:here we go again by ckaminski · · Score: 1, Troll

    Nevermind the fact that RTG's provide HEAT which can be used all winter to keep the rover from freezing. Solar panels are great in low latitudes, but in the Northern US, their usefulness in Winter (when they're needed most as a heating/cost cutting mechanism) is when they are most useless.

    I'm not sure I agree with the environmentally safer, you need to stripmine and process a *LOT* of Uranium for a little bit of Plutonium, but the end waste product is definitely more managable.