MSL FAQ - The pool of questions |
MSL FAQ - The pool of questions |
Jun 1 2007, 03:11 PM
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#1
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Rob Manning and I swopped emails last night - and we think it might make sense to pool all the questions people have about MSL (and specifically MSL's EDL ) into one thread - and then answer as many as make sense either via a Q'n'A in the style of the previous ones I've done with Steve and Jim - or via Rob's typing fingers.
It'll be a few weeks till we sort this out - but submit-away until then Doug |
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Jul 14 2007, 08:00 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 234 Joined: 8-May 05 Member No.: 381 |
Some may feel this belongs in the Mars Sample Return thread, but my main question is about MSL. The July 9 Aviation Week has an article about Alan Stern wanting to move up a sample return mission to 2018/20, with the following quote:
"One approach may be to outfit the '09 MSL...with a sample cache that could be filled as the rover moves across the surface and retrieved by a later sample return mission." Is this really possible, given how close MSL is to launch? It was my impression that the MSL design is pretty close to being frozen, and adding a sample cache seems to involve a nontrivial change to the rover design. I'll admit it could be done on an emergency basis, but given the budget problems MSL has already incurred, the schedule is currently very tight. I don't see how it could be done without restructuring the MSL program and delaying launch to 2011. I applaud Dr. Stern wanting to shake things up a bit and challenge the Mars program, but this doesn't seem realistic. |
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