MARS rovers still going...

[Tiamat]

 

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: michaels
Get your panties out of a wad, I am a shitty typer.

No, you seem to simple be an awful writer in general. And firefox has built in spell check now. You have no excuse. Except not caring about the quality of your writing. But I wouldn't call that an "excuse."

Dude, it's michaels. Does anyone even care any more? :laugh:

 

[So]

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: michaels
Get your panties out of a wad, I am a shitty typer.

No, you seem to simple be an awful writer in general. And firefox has built in spell check now. You have no excuse. Except not caring about the quality of your writing. But I wouldn't call that an "excuse."

Dude, it's michaels. Does anyone even care any more? :laugh:

I care. I always care. I just can't bring myself to give up on ATOT's neediest souls.

 

[XZeroII]

I wonder how much that amounts to in terms of $$$ per picture. I think that would be an interesting statistic. I mean, assuming that they cost $250,000 each, that means that each picture cost $2,500. Not great, but it's still thrilling.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
I wonder how much that amounts to in terms of $$$ per picture. I think that would be an interesting statistic. I mean, assuming that they cost $250,000 each, that means that each picture cost $2,500. Not great, but it's still thrilling.

The retail price on those rovers was definitely more than $250,000.

Plus, S & H killed any potential hot deal per photo.

 

[shiner]

Originally posted by: michaels
I wish Nasa would cut they shit, they know therer is life or signs of life out there somewhere in the Universe.

Word to your mother's uncle.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
I wonder how much that amounts to in terms of $$$ per picture. I think that would be an interesting statistic. I mean, assuming that they cost $250,000 each, that means that each picture cost $2,500. Not great, but it's still thrilling.

I seem to recall an approx. 1 billion dollar price tag (for both missions). That's probably gone up since there is on-going mission support/budgets.

 

[Eli]

Wow. Last I heard they were still going strong, but that was almost a year ago. Amazing. :Q

:thumbsup:

 

[OdiN]

Wow..that's a combined average of .0002226 MPH.

That's rather slow.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: OdiN
Wow..that's a combined average of .0002226 MPH.

That's rather slow.

You do realize they stop for extended periods of time to take and analyze samples right?

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: OdiN
Wow..that's a combined average of .0002226 MPH.

That's rather slow.

You do realize they stop for extended periods of time to take and analyze samples right?

I wasn't aware that time stopped while they did that...and therefore no longer counted in MPH calculations.

 

[five40]

What I don't get about these is can't someone at NASA tell us what they estimate is the maximum life span of these things. They keep saying 90 days was the mission and bla bla bla. They have to know how long they can possibly last. I'm figuring that before the mission they calculated that at a minimum the robots should last 90 days, but they should also calculate....OK it'll last 10 years in the best case scenario. It's not like the robot is a human living in the middle of the arctic tundra who's only hope is to find food and water. The robot needs sun and that's about it.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: five40
What I don't get about these is can't someone at NASA tell us what they estimate is the maximum life span of these things. They keep saying 90 days was the mission and bla bla bla. They have to know how long they can possibly last. I'm figuring that before the mission they calculated that at a minimum the robots should last 90 days, but they should also calculate....OK it'll last 10 years in the best case scenario. It's not like the robot is a human living in the middle of the arctic tundra who's only hope is to find food and water. The robot needs sun and that's about it.

I guess it'd be until the solar panels were killed by cosmic rays or something.

The reason why they said 90 days is because they thought that the solar panels would get covered in dust and be less effective. Then over the martian winter they wouldn't be able to generate enough heat at night to keep them warm and they'd be toast.

However they found that something was seemingly clearing the dust off the panels at night so they were fine

 

[BrownTown]

Well, for one thing I know that solar panels in high radiation environments wear out rather quickly, so their power supply is slowly but surely fading every year. I'm sure the batteries also slowldy degrade over time. Other than that I'm not really sure where you can make a sure guess on the "maximum" lifetime, its just like most things, there is a probability of failure you have to look at. So, at any given point some component could break down and never work again and then BOOM your done, but its not like there is a built in timer saying that, just bad luck. It really is a freaking miracle they have lasted this long. They have VERY VERY sensitive equipment onboard and are exposed to harsh radiation as well as dust storms and EXTREME temperature variations the like of which are not present on earth. And don't forget their power supply is TINY, the power supply is less than your laptop uses.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: OdiN
Wow..that's a combined average of .0002226 MPH.

That's rather slow.

You do realize they stop for extended periods of time to take and analyze samples right?

I wasn't aware that time stopped while they did that...and therefore no longer counted in MPH calculations.

It's called a "moving average"

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: OdiN
Wow..that's a combined average of .0002226 MPH.

That's rather slow.

You do realize they stop for extended periods of time to take and analyze samples right?

I wasn't aware that time stopped while they did that...and therefore no longer counted in MPH calculations.

It's called a "moving average"

Geez it's like moving an inch and then taking a nap and having the drivers come back and do it all over again. It's almost like those lab experiments those biotech guys do. They put crap in a centrifuge and they wait an hour and come back. Overall, not much is getting done by them it's more like just waiting.

 

[dsity]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: five40
What I don't get about these is can't someone at NASA tell us what they estimate is the maximum life span of these things. They keep saying 90 days was the mission and bla bla bla. They have to know how long they can possibly last. I'm figuring that before the mission they calculated that at a minimum the robots should last 90 days, but they should also calculate....OK it'll last 10 years in the best case scenario. It's not like the robot is a human living in the middle of the arctic tundra who's only hope is to find food and water. The robot needs sun and that's about it.

I guess it'd be until the solar panels were killed by cosmic rays or something.

The reason why they said 90 days is because they thought that the solar panels would get covered in dust and be less effective. Then over the martian winter they wouldn't be able to generate enough heat at night to keep them warm and they'd be toast.

However they found that something was seemingly clearing the dust off the panels at night so they were fine

darn those martians

 

[BUTCH1]

Keep in mind they are driving these things into craters and such to gather data
not just going the max distance possible each day for the hell of it..

 

[XZeroII]

Originally posted by: dsity

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: five40
What I don't get about these is can't someone at NASA tell us what they estimate is the maximum life span of these things. They keep saying 90 days was the mission and bla bla bla. They have to know how long they can possibly last. I'm figuring that before the mission they calculated that at a minimum the robots should last 90 days, but they should also calculate....OK it'll last 10 years in the best case scenario. It's not like the robot is a human living in the middle of the arctic tundra who's only hope is to find food and water. The robot needs sun and that's about it.

I guess it'd be until the solar panels were killed by cosmic rays or something.

The reason why they said 90 days is because they thought that the solar panels would get covered in dust and be less effective. Then over the martian winter they wouldn't be able to generate enough heat at night to keep them warm and they'd be toast.

However they found that something was seemingly clearing the dust off the panels at night so they were fine

darn those martians

That will be $1, sir.

 

[shiner]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: five40
What I don't get about these is can't someone at NASA tell us what they estimate is the maximum life span of these things. They keep saying 90 days was the mission and bla bla bla. They have to know how long they can possibly last. I'm figuring that before the mission they calculated that at a minimum the robots should last 90 days, but they should also calculate....OK it'll last 10 years in the best case scenario. It's not like the robot is a human living in the middle of the arctic tundra who's only hope is to find food and water. The robot needs sun and that's about it.

I guess it'd be until the solar panels were killed by cosmic rays or something.

The reason why they said 90 days is because they thought that the solar panels would get covered in dust and be less effective. Then over the martian winter they wouldn't be able to generate enough heat at night to keep them warm and they'd be toast.

However they found that something was seemingly clearing the dust off the panels at night so they were fine

Nothing like a nice heavy dew to wash things off.