Nasa announces new rover mission to Mars in 2020 |
Nasa announces new rover mission to Mars in 2020 |
Dec 4 2012, 11:24 PM
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#301
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Member Group: Members Posts: 723 Joined: 13-June 04 Member No.: 82 |
NASA plans Mars rover remake for 2020
QUOTE NASA today announced a $1.5 billion plan to build another Mars rover based on the design of its current Curiosity rover, with the intention of sending it to the Red Planet in 2020 and perhaps storing up samples for later return to Earth.
The move comes less than a year after the space agency said it couldn't afford to contribute $1.4 billion to the European-led Exomars missions, and it seems likely to stir new debate within the planetary science community. Hoped-for missions to other interplanetary destinations, such as the Jovian moon Europa, could conceivably be impacted further by the revised plans for Mars exploration. John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters, insisted that the budget could handle the new commitment. "This mission concept fits within the current and projected Mars exploration budget, builds on the exciting discoveries of Curiosity, and takes advantage of a favorable launch opportunity," he said in a NASA news release. He said the future rover would be built on the same basic design used for the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in August, and thus capitalize on the design work that was done during Curiosity's development for its $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission. Like Curiosity, the new rover would be nuclear-powered, thanks to a spare radioisotope thermoelectric generator, Grunsfeld said. Grunsfeld announced the plan during a town-hall session at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco. Based on Twitter updates from the meeting, reaction was deeply mixed. "NASA town meeting audience is very quiet," Lindy Elkins-Tanton of the Carnegie Institution of Washington tweeted. "I think we are all in shock." Projected budget cuts have cast a pall of uncertainty over future plans for interplanetary probes, but the idea of bringing samples back from Mars for study on Earth is on top of planetary scientists' priority list for the next decade. Grunsfeld told his AGU audience that the rover could have the capability to gather and store samples for later return, depending on how its science mission is defined. NASA said a science definition team would be selected to outline the mission's objectives, and that the selection of science and instruments for the mission would then be openly competed. The mission would also help lay the groundwork for eventual human exploration of Mars, the agency said. "The Obama administration is committed to a robust Mars exploration program," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in today's statement. "With this next mission, we're ensuring America remains the world leader in the exploration of the Red Planet, while taking another significant step toward sending humans there in the 2030s." Two rovers are currently in operation on Mars — Curiosity and Opportunity. Meanwhile, three working spacecraft are orbiting the Red Planet: the European Space Agency's Mars Express as well as NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey orbiter. Next year, NASA is due to launch the $500 million MAVEN orbiter to study Mars' upper atmosphere. In 2016, NASA plans to send a $425 million lander called InSight to delve into Mars' depths. NASA also plans to participate in the European Space Agency's Exomars program by contributing radios for an orbiter and lander due for launch in 2016, as well as scientific apparatus for a 2018 rover. But the space agency had to trim back its commitment to Exomars early this year, in large part due to the need to cover cost overruns on the James Webb Space Telescope. The Russian Space Agency is filling the gap left by NASA's pullback. U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who has been critical of past cutbacks in NASA's planetary science program, applauded the plan announced today. "In its few short months on Mars, Curiosity has broadened our understanding of our planetary neighbor, and the findings announced thus far point to even greater discoveries as Curiosity continues to explore Gale Crater and Mount Sharp," Schiff said in a written statement. "An upgraded rover with additional instrumentation and capabilities is a logical next step that builds upon now-proven landing and surface operations systems." However, Schiff said he favored launching the rover in 2018 — when the alignment of Earth and Mars is more favorable, permitting the launch of a heavier payload. "I will be working with NASA, the White House and my colleagues in Congress to see whether advancing the launch date is possible, and what it would entail," he said. |
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Jun 15 2020, 04:08 AM
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#302
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Member Group: Members Posts: 363 Joined: 13-April 06 From: Malta Member No.: 741 |
I have been reading up ahead of the launch and hopefully safe landing of Perseverance rover on Mars. I am surprised at the energy constraints the Curiosity rover had to work with given that 110 W are used to generate electricity for rover operations on the surface but a part of it also is' wasted' in keeping the rover parts warm. Has anything changed with the new Perseverance rover regarding energy usage ??
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Jun 15 2020, 02:57 PM
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#303
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Member Group: Members Posts: 715 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
I have been reading up ahead of the launch and hopefully safe landing of Perseverance rover on Mars. I am surprised at the energy constraints the Curiosity rover had to work with given that 110 W are used to generate electricity for rover operations on the surface but a part of it also is' wasted' in keeping the rover parts warm. Has anything changed with the new Perseverance rover regarding energy usage ?? RTG's work by having a strong difference in temperature between thermocouples: RTGs work by converting thermal energy into electrical energy through devices known as thermocouples. The natural decay of plutonium-238 produces heat that is then transferred to one side of the thermocouple. The temperature difference between the fuel and the atmosphere allows the device to convert this heat into electricity. The most current RTG model, the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), provides approximately 110 Watts of electrical power when freshly fueled. DOE webpage To create the difference, there must be a *hot* heat source, in this case plutonium-238. Not all of the heat gets converted to electricity (3-4% as a I recall). You'll note the fins on the RTG unit as one part of this. However, rovers and spacecraft need to be kept warm inside, and so some of that heat is piped through the body. The benefit isn't trivial - half of the electrical power in the solar powered Juno spacecraft goes to heaters. (Missions can also request to use radioisotope heater units, are are basically units with a little Pu-238 in them that can provide heat. See the list of missions below that have used them.) The Department of Energy (which develops RTG technology) is planning a new generation of RTGs to be available toward the end of this decade that would be around twice as efficient in converting the heat to electricity. Missions that used RHUs: NASA missions enabled by radioisotope heater units Apollo 11 EASEP Lunar Radioisotope Heater - contained two 15W RHUs Pioneer 10 & 11 - 12 RHUs each Voyager 1 & 2 - 9 RHUs each Galileo - 120 RHUs (103 on orbiter, 17 on atmospheric probe) Mars Pathfinder Sojourner Rover - 3 RHUs Cassini - 117 RHUs (82 on orbiter, 35 on Huygens Titan probe) MER Spirit & Opportunity Rovers - 8 RHUs each RHU webpage -------------------- |
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