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Mars Probe Brings the "Weather Rock" New Respect
radioweather writes "What looked to casual observers like a malfunction, a dangling wire with
something on the end, seen in the
first photo of
the meteorological mast on NASA's
Phoenix Mars Lander,
actually
turned out to be the real instrument. Surprisingly, it is much like the
novelty 'weather rock' seen as a novelty gag around the world. The instrument
called the 'Telltale'
is described as a 'passive wind indicator' and uses an extremely lightweight
Kapton tube hanging in Kevlar fiber. Images taken of the instrument will show
the deflection of the Telltale due to the Martian wind."
Don't you hate it when... Simple makes sense?
Anything you say will be held against you.
It definitely wins in the durability department. Dust is a real problem on mars, so wherever that weather vane pivots would have to be sealed up pretty tight.
Great, Now make your nice lightweight fragile weathervane survive 9g's of reentry and almost that amount on launch, plus numerous bumps at various times in the mission.
Touchdown on the Mars Surface was 5 miles an hour. How hard could it be. Now, crash your Toyota into a wall at 5 MPH and you might find that the 5 MPH bumpers really only work at 4.95 MPH. Oops.
It's easy to make a lightweight weathervane. It's hard to make a lightweight weathervane, get it to Mars, and still have it in working order.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
To the best of my ability to read, we just spent a few million dollars so that we could learn the direction the wind was blowing. At one point. On a rock. A rock very, very far away from here. Where no humans fly, boat, or do anything else which benefits in the slightest from wind directional data.
Except, you know, that whole "understanding the environment of Mars" which benefits quite a bit from knowing about the wind. Sure it's only one location. On the other hand, it will be the only measurement we've ever had and thus a substantial increase in knowledge. They could have spent more on more sophisticated devices, compromising the mass (and dollar) budget, if you really wanted to.
It's hard for me to imagine how you could approve of the overall $420 million project, yet disapprove of this simple, lightweight, and relatively cheap instrument. If you're expecting anything discovered by the Phoenix to have a direct impact on sailing, boating, or any other thing we do here on earth, well, it's possible it will happen eventually, but don't hold your breath. So is it the entire concept of investigating other planets in our solar system that bothers you? Or is it really just the unsophisticated wind indicator?
The enemies of Democracy are
Dowsing rods actually do an awfully good job at detecting idiots!
Because a sonic sonic anemometer requires power, calibration, and computer cycles. A windsock doesn't.
Geez mods! You mark a guy "Funny" who has an extra sensory experience due to the influence of a remote magnetic ballast, and then mod the oldest dowsing rod joke on the planet as "Insightful"? Not sure where you're going with that roll...