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Antique Fridge Could Keep Venus Rover Cool

Hugh Pickens writes "In the 1970s and 80s, several probes landed on Venus and returned data from the surface but they all expired less than 2 hours after landing because of Venus' tremendous heat. It's hard to keep a rover functioning when temperatures of 450 C are hot enough to melt lead but NASA researchers have designed a refrigeration system that might be able to keep a robotic rover going for as long as 50 Earth days using a reverse Stirling engine. NASA has not committed to a Venus rover mission, but a 2003 National Academies of Science study recommended that high priority be given to a robot mission to investigate the Venusian surface helping to answer such questions as why Venus ended up so different from Earth and if the changes have taken place relatively recently."

2 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. you're a bore by circletimessquare · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    of course it is difficult to terraform planets. any attempt at terraforming any planet will require commanding and intricately directing massive amounts of energy many orders of mangitude well beyond anything mankind has even dreamed of mastering

    but at the same time, ask a roman general 2,000 years ago to consider the existence of jet fighters, air craft carriers, and helicopters and you would get the same level of incredulity as you have now about being in a "magical universe"

    which means his problem, and your problem, is that you lack imagination. you're a dullard. you think pointing out that terraforming planets is difficult is a useful comment to make

    well shit, thanks for enlightening us. we had no idea, we thought it would be easy. where would we be without you?

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  2. wait by circletimessquare · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    you mean terraforming planets is a fantasy?

    we did not know that!

    where would we be without you?

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it