Mars Science Laboratory

[gfish]

I recently realized that I hadn't been keeping up with Mars rover development. Shameful, given my imaginary connections! So I pulled up details for the Mars Science Laboratory.



Immediate reaction: ...where are the solar panels? Followed quickly by: ...is that an RTG?

Yes, yes it is. I guess that solves the dust buildup problem! Just stick a radioisotope thermoelectric generator on it! That's just wonderfully crazy. Minimum power life of 14 years! They're really not messing around here.



It's also huge. Good old Sojourner could almost play hamster in its wheels!

Doesn't launch for another year, and its had plenty of budgetary issues already, so we'll see. And they're not using the balloon system for landing, which makes me nervous. But this is really very exciting.

Comments

[arjache.livejournal.com]

Yay RTG! I'm really looking forward to the possibility of over 14 years of continuous surface exploration. The proposed launch system makes me nervous too, although it sounds awesomely mad science - I mean really, a hovering rocket platform lowering the rover down to the surface with a crane? But what I like most about this mission is that the rover will be named Curiosity, which strikes me as being possibly the best rover name ever.