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Mars Rovers Threatened By Dust Storms
mrcgran writes "Space.com is reporting a new potentially deadly weather condition threatening the Mars rovers: 'The first and largest dusty squall has reduced direct sunlight to Mars' surface by nearly 99 percent, an unprecedented threat for the solar-powered rovers. If the storm keeps up and thickens with even more dust, officials fear the rovers' batteries may empty and silence the robotic explorers forever. "This thing has been breaking records the past few days. The sun is 100 times fainter than normal. We're hoping for a big break in the storm soon, but that's just a hope." '"
I can't beleive they designed them that way....
that if the batteries completely drain they're lost forever, even if they later recharge again (when the storm has moved on).
Have NASA never heard of boot loaders and non-volatile memory?
They should put stuff like this on Mars:
t s
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/350/
( Saw them on digg:
http://digg.com/gadgets/Amazing_wind_powered_robo
)
Would like to know if they had something on a board that said:
Projected lifespan/duration (estimated): 90 days
Actual: 3 years AND COUNTING!!
That is quite the feat, and you guys deserve to frame THAT and hang it on a wall. Well done!
(Also, a poster of a sandstorm hanging nearby, with a couple of darts thrown at it =)
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Anyone who knows anything about extreme hardware knows that you wire-wrap your shit; that and you specify it to or above mil-spec.
:p
How do you think monitoring equipment at the poles works for months on end at -40C to -60C?
I'll tell you one thing; it doesn't work by heating the damn enclosure
This and the dumb "90 days expected lifetime" of the original mission is caused by the continual dumbing-down of NASA and other vital research institutions by civilian academics who don't have the hardcore aerospace/military experience of the deep-space engineers of the 60/70's.
The rovers were supposed to last only three months because of dust building up on the solar panels---how come they never considered wipers?
Considering the fact that the rovers have far outlived their design life - wipers don't seem to be essential, do they?
Wipers (and the motor to run them) add mass, the motor requires energy, circuitry, etc. Just another component that can fail. And a non essential one at that, apparently.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
MERs and other Mars surface landers and rovers don't use wind turbines because the atmosphere is incredibly thin - far to thin to turn turbine blades. Think about it... they've only received puffs of wind strong enough to blow the thin coating of (incredibly small) dust particles off the solar cells half a dozen times in three years. You'd barely feel the touch of the wind on your skin even when it's blowing at it's strongest.
Everything I needed to know about life, I learnt from Blake's Seven
Not having searched, I wonder what power source the Rovers use? Were it a small backup nuclear battery it would surprise me if it couldn't keep things (like the main batts) warm enough, and last long enough to power the most basic of rover "keepalive" functions.
Also not knowing how much wind is actually whipping up the frothy dust, how big would a set of cups or blades on the ends of a stick need to be to generate power for the same purpose (if not nuclear). Granted one couldn't always count on there being wind, and the cost to weight ratio against the advantage of having a wind power backup might not add up - but it begs the question...
Never have a philosophy which supports a lack of courage
Once upon a time all prototype electronics were wirewrapped. Today, it's a dying art.
When dip IC's ruled the roost wirewrap was king. Today, surface mount ic's are king
and pc boards rule.
Also as circuit speeds went up, wirewrap stopped working. With clock speeds under 5 mhz, the long leads of wire wrapped construction with signals running parallel worked well enough. With today's 100mhz+ clocks wirewrap would have fatal crosstalk. Back in the 80's a company I worked for tried to wirewrap a cpu prototype using 10mhz processors. We NEVER got it to work, too many problems with crosstalk. A 4 layer circuit board was MUCH quieter, and worked fine.
Then there is the issue of labor. With computer layout software and automated fabs it's much cheaper and faster to have a pc prototype made than to pay some tech's to wirewrap a proto. In fact you can go through two or three pc prototypes in the time/money required to do just
ONE wirewrap one.
Wirewrap is DEAD. Bury it!