MSL reasons for delay |
MSL reasons for delay |
Mar 4 2009, 03:33 PM
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#1
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2547 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
I wanted to make sure that everyone interested sees Adrian Brown's articles at http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1319/1 and http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1318/1 about the technical and budgetary problems with MSL that led to the launch slip. While I can't claim to be privy to the budgetary and political issues at the mission level, the technical discussion seems like a fair summary of the situation as I understand it, at least as good a one as can be gathered from public sources.
People in other forums have complained about errors in these articles, but without giving specific examples or providing any factual basis for their objections. I don't find that very useful. If there are real flaws in this account, I'd be quite interested to know what they are. p.s. I guess we need to change the name of this subforum. -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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May 6 2009, 12:45 PM
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#2
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 30 Joined: 3-October 07 From: Fátima - Portugal Member No.: 3927 |
One question about the RTG in MSL: in front of the natural decay of plutonium, will be the amount of power available for MSL lesser with the two years delay of launch?
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May 8 2009, 12:42 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 279 Joined: 19-August 07 Member No.: 3299 |
One question about the RTG in MSL: in front of the natural decay of plutonium, will be the amount of power available for MSL lesser with the two years delay of launch? It was previously discussed. The answer was that the loss of power is not of concern since it is very small. About how much, I don't remember but the reference is to take in account that the half life span of this type of radiative is of 88 years. Wikipedia about Plutonium |
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