MSL development & assembly, Until it's shipped to the Cape |
MSL development & assembly, Until it's shipped to the Cape |
Mar 29 2010, 08:11 PM
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#1
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2922 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrénées Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
In case you missed it there's 9 minutes on MSL (actual hardware visible) + 5 minutes with Dr Elachi on "This week in Space" there: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/
14 minutes out of 23 regarding Unmanned, not bad. -------------------- |
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Jul 24 2010, 03:03 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 593 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 279 |
^ Nice piece, Stu.
Dumb question I can't find an answer for: is the RTG currently on the back of MSL a correct-weight mock-up for these experiments, given there's a substantial cable connected to Curiosity, and - if so - when does the real one get fitted? Andy Edited for typo |
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Jul 24 2010, 03:39 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
is the RTG currently on the back of MSL a correct-weight mock-up for these experiments, given there's a substantial cable connected to Curiosity, Everything is so out of whack with respect to the weight when you consider that they are testing in 1.0g something meant to operate in 0.37g, what equipment is on or not on the vehicle is mostly irrelevant. I'm sure there's a whole lot of equipment either dummied-up or missing entirely. Ultimately they know the total wight of the vehicle during the testing and if it's a load-critical test they make certain that the weight is 0.37 of the fully assembled vehicle. Stripping off components is one way to do that (attaching helium balloons might be another ) so removing the RTG or its mock-up twin would make a lot of sense. The cable is probably a minor consideration but could be easily taken into account. -------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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