Curiosity - The Next Mars Lander

  • Thread starter FoolKiller
  • 478 comments
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At 1ness
@ FoolKiller.

Yeah, i hear you on the by-product thing... not so much on the 'Men in black', never seen the film... never want to.

:lol:
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Really? There's a scene where they explain their funding by licensing alien technology to make things like microwaves and CDs.
 
Dennisch
Posts keep popping up and disappearing.

Retry:

This image:
674275main_pia16003-43_428-321.jpg


Why is there green and red, as if it is a 3D picture?


Edit. :P And now it turned into a double post for me! Stealth mod in action!
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With red and blue glasses, like used in the 50s for B&W 3D horror movies, it is a 3D picture.

As for NASA contributions to world-wide well-being, just about anything with microelectronics can be linked to the need to make stuff do more and more work in smaller and smaller packages. You want to put a radar in an airplane, just build a bigger airplane and put more motors on it. Who cares how big the radar set has to be? You want to put a radar on a spacecraft, you gotta have a radar set that you can lift vertically, and push to over 17,000 miles per hour, in just a few minutes. All of a sudden everybody cares how big the set is!
 
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BlisteredHand
"Sorry Touring Mars is a moderator/admin and you are not allowed to ignore him or her."
Can you fix this?
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It's for your own safety. If you were able to ignore the staff you might miss Warnings they give you and continue the same behaviour patterns that lead to that Warning, ultimately leading to you being banned.

Which would, of course, "fix" it.
 
R1600Turbo
Maybe not live streaming, but hopefully video. Man that would be sweet. Probably asking for too much though. :indiff:
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I'd be very impressed if they did this. You'd be surprised how hard it is to get good bandwidth to/from an underpowered tiny antenna on the other side of the solar system - especially with most of it being used for porn.
 
Yeah, several minutes, even hours to transmit a single image, I'm thinking video is gonna be pretty tough.

There is no 10-gig to Mars......
 
How much bandwidth do they have anyway?

I wonder how hard it would be for NASA to land a full scale communications center on the surface of Mars just to boost the signals to the satellites?
 
Here is a resolution to the power question, courtesy of Wiki

Wikipedia
Curiosity's power generator is the latest RTG generation built by Boeing, called the "Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator" or MMRTG. Based on classical RTG technology, it represents a more flexible and compact development step, and is designed to produce 125 watts of electrical power from about 2000 watts of thermal power at the start of the mission. The MMRTG produces less power over time as its plutonium fuel decays: at its minimum lifetime of 14 years, electrical power output is down to 100 watts. The power source will generate 9 MJ (2.5 kilowatt hours) per day, much more than the Mars Exploration Rovers' solar panels, which can generate about 2.1 MJ (0.6 kilowatt hours) per day.
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So looks like the operating time for the onboard electronics and systems may be limited by the environmental factors on Mars and not a finite power life, factors such as weathering as Brett noted.
 
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Weathering is not going to affect the fuel source decay, but it may have an impact on other systems on Curiosity. Dust and dirt are nasty stuff for electronics.
 
Brett
Weathering is not going to affect the fuel source decay, but it may have an impact on other systems on Curiosity. Dust and dirt are nasty stuff for electronics.
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I didn't make it very clear, I meant that :lol:

EDIT: Fixed it
 
Another press conference in about 30 minutes.

Edit: We should be getting a full color, high-res, full 360 degree panorama photo shortly. 👍
 
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carracerptp
How much bandwidth do they have anyway?
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It's not the bandwidth that's the problem right now. The high gain X band antenna isn't pointing directly at Earth yet, so it must relay through the two orbiters. The problem is each orbiter can only see Curiosity for about 8 minutes a day. At their best it can send between them at about 2Mbs, and as low as 256Kbs. Once the high gain antenna is properly aligned it will have constant communication with Earth at 32Kbs. Not a lot but still better than 2Mbs for less than 16 minutes a day.

And then there is that 14 minute ping.
 
^^^ That's a high resolution version from that animation they posted the other day. The guy said they should have the whole thing in high-res in the next few days. Can't wait to see that. :)

Edit: The new photos are up.

Edit 2: Just thought I would point out, the two divots in the ground there are from the jet pack.

674895main_pia16013-43_800-600.jpg
 
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Cool stuff.

Hopefully by the time I'm 80 my wife and I will have enough money live out the rest of our lives on Mars.

Jump on one of the commercial trips out there (if they're successful).

It will be amazing if it happens.
 
Soloracer3
Ahh ok, I hadn't seen it posted here as an image so thought it may have been something newer.
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Oh no, the photo you posted is definitely new. I was just saying there was a lower resolution version posted yesterday in a stop motion video, which they hope to re-post in the next few days with the higher resolution like the photo you posted. ;)
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19186237#
One instrument on the rover has already had a chance to gather some data. This is the Radiation Assessment Detector (Rad).

Indeed, this instrument has acquired quite a lot of data so far, as it was working for periods even during the rover's cruise to Mars.

It is endeavouring to characterise the flux of high-energy atomic and subatomic particles reaching Mars from the Sun and distant exploded stars.

This radiation would be hazardous to any microbes alive on the planet today, but would also constitute a threat to the health of any future astronauts on the Red Planet.
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/674910main_pia16020-full_full.jpg

Respectfully submitted,
Steve
 
The radiation would only be harmful to life as we know it. Life, even at the microbial level, on another planet could have evolved to adapt to any sort of conditions.

I always get annoyed when people say they has to be x, y & z to support life when we have no idea what life on other planets could even be like.
 
Joey D
The radiation would only be harmful to life as we know it. Life, even at the microbial level, on another planet could have evolved to adapt to any sort of conditions.
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Not even that, to some degree. There are several bacteria on earth strongly resistant to radiation. Some are also highly resistant to pressure, temperature, desiccation and other extreme environments, which makes them pretty much suitable to live anywhere.
 

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