Robotic Rockhounds: Twin Mars Rovers to Use High-Tech Tools

Space.com ^ | April 16th, 2003 | Tariq Malik

[AndrewC]

Mars Orbiter bump.

[newgeezer]

Note to NASA: 1 inch = 2.54 centimetres exactly. Other things scale from there. ... 1 mile = 1.609344 kilometres exactly.

Hey, Doctor S., I'm no Einstein. Maybe I'm wrong but, it seems to me that the latter equation is only true if 1 inch = 2.540000 cm.

So, is it? ;-)

[js1138]

Well, if it already got there, why isn't it broadcasting? More tile trouble?

[AndrewC]

Update

Mars Rover Launch Delayed to Fix Problem

Tue Apr 15, 3:40 PM ET

Add Science - AP to My Yahoo!

By ANDREW BRIDGES, AP Science Writer

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA (news - web sites) has delayed this summer's launch date for the first of two Mars rovers after discovering they were vulnerable to short circuits that could have doomed them.

NASA must partially disassemble both rovers to fix the problem, delaying launch of the first from Cape Canaveral, Fla., by eight days, to no earlier than June 6. The second rover is expected to be launched between June 25 and July 15 as scheduled.



The robots have electrical connections to the spacecraft carrying them to Mars. Recent testing revealed a guillotine-like device designed to sever the cables could produce a short circuit that might affect circuit boards inside the rover, NASA said.



Project manager Peter Theisinger said such a short could cause the rovers to lose the radar data they require to determine their position and velocity during descent to the surface of Mars, expected in January 2004. /font>

At least they seem to be catching the problems before it is too late to fix them.

[AndrewC]

[Sabertooth]

Well, if it already got there, why isn't it broadcasting?

The signal has to come back through the wormhole. It's a kaon "phase-shift" thing. Don't you watch Star Trek?

[Sabertooth]

Very cool. They should call the pancam Linda Blair.

[AndrewC]

The signal has to come back through the wormhole. It's a kaon "phase-shift" thing.

Mars sure looks like Earth.(See post #25)

[Doctor Stochastic]

Yes.

[RightWhale]

Manned space programs: What a total waste of money!

Hard to say, since there aren't any manned space programs.

---

Apollo, maybe, but that was a long time ago. The ISS and the Space Shuttle don't count, they don't make it to real space, they don't escape earth's gravity well or the atmosphere. Above the von Karman limit, but not true space. In fact the ISS needs to be reboosted frequently or it will re-enter the atmosphere almost immediately and burn up like Mir or Columbia.

There are no manned space programs. The point is moot.

[Sabertooth]

((((((growl)))))

[RightWhale]

38% of all Mars missions have any degree of success at all, ioncluding those that transmitted one beep of data. The rest transmitted nothing at all. 62% failed completely.

Viking 1 and Viking 2 did a little geology, so it is hard to visualize these new probes as the first ground geology probes.

[biblewonk]

they don't escape earth's gravity well or the atmosphere

Escape earths gravity well? That's a good one. How deep is earth's gravity well?

[RightWhale]

If you make it to the moon you have escaped 99% of earth's gravity well. If you make it to Mars, you have completely escaped earth's gravity well. If you make it to low earth orbit, you have escaped 70% of earth's gravity well.

Thus, going to Mars would be true space travel. Going to the moon amounts to the same thing in total with all the delta-vees by the time you achieve lunar orbit. ISS is not true space travel, it's only 70%. The X-Prize requires only 20% escape from earth's gravity well and is not even a cousin to true space travel.

[djf]

Gotta give the Martians an A for effort. They're still working out the bugs in their surface-to-air stuff!

[RansomOttawa]

. . . the six-wheeled rovers will be rolling around the Red Planet sometime in January 2003.

In other news, NASA unveiled its new design for the next-generation space shuttle:

[PatrickHenry]

From the last manned mission to Mars:

[CJ Wolf]

Has anyone seen one of those?

[CJ Wolf]

I think it's just you. We invented Time Travel back in 2030.

[green team 1999]

well,nasa is in a hurry doing some rewiring,something is not ready before launch!