Canadian Space Agency Shows Off Prototype Rovers

An anonymous reader writes "At its headquarters in Longueuil, Que. Friday, the Canadian Space Agency rolled out a fleet of about a half-dozen prototype rovers that are the forerunners of vehicles that may one day explore the moon or Mars. The agency said the terrestrial rovers bring it one step closer to developing the next generation for space exploration."

Comments

On what Rocket?

[Anonymous Coward]

But how are they going to get them to Mars Eh?

Secret LOX and Maple Syrup rockets?

Re:On what Rocket?

[Anonymous Coward]

But how are they going to get them to Mars Eh?

Secret LOX and Maple Syrup rockets?

I had to think on that one. But I did that calculations and found that maple syrup only has about a fifth the enthalpy of combustion of something like RP-1. And Canadian maple syrup is famous for being pretty viscous. It might clog up the rocket engines and I don't think any Canadian could in good conscience adulterate the maple syrup to make it flow more smoothly. I understand that they have a large strategic stockpile, but I think they should just feed it to their astronauts and continue to use normal rocket fuel for their spacecraft.

Re:On what Rocket?

[dbIII]

The same way the USA will have to move the heavy stuff now they've given up - Soyuz.

International cooperation

[trout007]

There are a few projects that NASA, CSA, and other agencies are working on together. The idea is to try to make exploration much cheaper by having modular components. So you can pick a target like the moon. Decide what you want to do like drill some core samples from the polar regions and sample them. You need a chem lab, drill, Rover, lander, and launch vehicle. If you can pick ones that have already been designed and flown you can save lots of money.

http://www.americaspace.org/?p=21059

Re:International cooperation

[DerekLyons]

The idea is to try to make exploration much cheaper by having modular components. So you can pick a target like the moon. Decide what you want to do like drill some core samples from the polar regions and sample them.

In space, particularly due to the wide range of temperature environments, that's like having a modular system that can go to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the Greenland ice cap, the Sahara desert, or the Amazon jungle. It's been studied again and again, but it never actually works beyond paper studies and the odd low fidelity demonstrator. You end up spending too much money either hacking existing bits to do what they weren't designed to or building custom modules, and not actually saving any money.

Re:International cooperation

[trout007]

I don't think I was clear. I didn't mean to say you would have a Rover that could go anywhere. It means you could have one Rover that is designed for Lunar Polar Regions, One for Lunar Equatorial Regions, One for Mars Polar, Mars Equatorial, etc. The same with the Landers and instruments.

You are right that in the past it's been difficult due to launch costs. But with commercial space we are seeing launch costs drop. This opens up some interesting opportunities. When your launch vehicle costs $300 million your mission is already expensive without a payload. You have to try to maximize your science. Spending another $600 million for a customized payload doesn't seem too bad.

But if you can get a $50 million dollar launcher things change. It starts to make sense to spend less on the mission in return for less science. If you can get the costs of the Landers and Rovers down you can start to afford to do missions that don't have every bell and whistle on board.

CSA page for the rovers

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're interested in actually seeing the rovers, the Canadian Space Agency has a good page describing them:
http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/media/backgrounders/2012/1019.asp

Re:Maybe FedEx will deliver them

[rossdee]

Theres a whole lot less delta V involved in getting a missile warhead a thousand kilometers or so than getting a rover all the way to Mars, plus the rover has to land in one pice when it gets there.

(Note Iranian missiles will not be aimed at USA, they will be aimed at Haifa and Tel Aviv

TIL.

[Seumas]

Today, I learned: Canada has as Space Agency.

Re:Maybe FedEx will deliver them

[Guspaz]

Because nobody in the world is offering any sort of commercial launch services, and certainly nobody in California is working on superheavy commercial launch vehicles that might have the capacity to take a probe to Mars...

True purpose revealed

[Freshly Exhumed]

Ostensibly it is indeed a "Space" agency, but the real insider scoop is that in about a year the rovers will actually be sent to Vermont as a prelude to invasion and subjugation of that state's maple syrup and dairy industries. Of course the Green Mountain Boys will welcome us with roses.

You read it here first.

Re:Oh those wacky Canadians...

[Guspaz]

You're right, I missed the "per capita" in your comment.

Still, $300 million a year can go pretty far when a Falcon 9 launch (which will eventually be able to carry astronauts) costs $50 million... Let NASA blow all their money on ludicrously overpriced and bureaucratic lift capacity like Orion, Canada can get people into space on our own dime at a fraction the cost with private companies that don't have to build parts of their craft in every different state to get their budget past congress...