Nuclear Mars Rover??

[Floyd Looney]

Last time, NASA dropped 2 small rovers on Mars. They were about the size of a small coffee table. Spirit and Opportunity.

Today they are finishing up a new rover that is about the size of a small car. Okay, maybe not in height. This new rover is supposed to be able to drill into the ground, not just scrape the surface. I suppose this is to look for ice.

The last rovers had to be in position for winter so their solar panels could collect enough light to keep their internals warm enough not to "die".

I am not sure what happens with the new rover, but couldn't we just avoid this limitation by just sending a nuclear powered rover?

I would make it the size of a small mini-van with a smaller rover built in that could be sent to places the large rover cannot go. Plus I would add a UAV of some type (I hear that props/blades won't work because the air is too thin) that could fly low but give us a new view of the Martian landscape. (and for charting routes through the rocks for the big rover)

What do you think?

[Attero Dominatus]

I think a nuclear powered rover is a good idea. Spirit and Opportunity have lasted literally years beyond their design lifetime and are still going strong. A nuclear powered rover, if engineered right, could operate for decades.

[Floyd Looney]

Mars Tank!

[Floyd Looney]

I think depending on the solar sails to keep the rovers from freezing was risky, although it turned out to work.

[Floyd Looney]

Oops.... I guess the next one is nuclear powered. heh.

digitaljournal.com/article/305797


Pasadena - Work is almost complete on the Curiosity rover, a nuclear-power vehicle designed to search for past or current signs of life on Mars.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity is larger and can perform more intricate functions than the Mars Exploration Rovers.

“It’s a major step forward scientifically,” Fast Co Design quoted project manager Peter Theisinger as saying. “Primarily in the fact that Curiosity will ingest samples into a couple of key instruments, and do a chemical and mineralogical analysis of what we see in the rocks and soil. So MER was more of a geological package, and this is more of a chemical analysis package.”

The semi-automated, nuclear-powered, six-wheel-drive vehicle that can has mounted cameras, an extendable arm for sample gathering, an on-board lab to analyze the samples, and a UHF transmitter to beam the information back to Earth via Mars orbiters.


Read more: digitaljournal.com/article/305797#ixzz1KB4CcRbC