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Do rovers need a specific trenching tool?, Dead wheel works, but designed scoop would be better
Floyd
post Dec 2 2007, 07:46 PM
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The stuck wheel has been key to most of Spirit's most important discoveries. Should future rover designs include a scoop which can be dragged behind the rover to turn over the soil? It could be on an arm with just one motor/degree of freedom--up or down. The scoop/plow could be on a flexible arm so if it snagged a rock, it would deflect away. Since everything on mars is covered with a layer of dust, you need something to continuously trench to find sulfates, silica or the next unexpected thing. The arm could be very light if you had a little scoop/rake at the end of a flexible fiberglass pole. Maybe you could add some type of simple sensor to the scoop to determine the crude spectral properties of the freshly exposed soil. Lots of possibilities.

What do you think--is a scoop/plow/rake a worthwhile rover tool? What is your design?


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Posts in this topic
- Floyd   Do rovers need a specific trenching tool?   Dec 2 2007, 07:46 PM
- - mike   A simpler design would be to have the scoop hangin...   Dec 2 2007, 09:23 PM
- - SpaceListener   My philosophy is that an "Space hand" is...   Dec 3 2007, 12:56 AM
- - edstrick   I have been frustrated the entire MER mission, sin...   Dec 3 2007, 05:31 AM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (edstrick @ Dec 3 2007, 05:31 AM) B...   Dec 3 2007, 09:34 AM
|- - ElkGroveDan   QUOTE (djellison @ Dec 3 2007, 01:34 AM) ...   Dec 4 2007, 04:02 PM
- - Shaka   How deep a furrow? Edit: This proves it. nprev an...   Dec 3 2007, 06:18 AM
- - nprev   Ed, man...take a pill! Understand you're ...   Dec 3 2007, 06:18 AM
- - edstrick   DJEllison: " We got some fairly good trenches...   Dec 4 2007, 11:02 AM
- - djellison   I just don't see it working - I don't see ...   Dec 4 2007, 11:22 AM
|- - hendric   QUOTE (djellison @ Dec 4 2007, 05:22 AM) ...   Dec 4 2007, 07:28 PM
- - ilbasso   and don't forget that they were trenching with...   Dec 4 2007, 04:49 PM
- - centsworth_II   But it was Spirit's stuck wheel that really sh...   Dec 4 2007, 06:05 PM
- - algorimancer   I like the plow idea. However, I did a fair amoun...   Dec 4 2007, 07:30 PM
- - Floyd   algorimancer--It all depends upon the size of the ...   Dec 4 2007, 08:00 PM
- - Aussie   Given the weight budget I feel that any needs anal...   Dec 4 2007, 11:47 PM
- - Floyd   Weight is critical in the cost benefit analysis. D...   Dec 5 2007, 12:43 AM
- - Astro0   Perhaps we could just employ the Swiss version of ...   Dec 5 2007, 02:33 AM
|- - CryptoEngineer   QUOTE (Astro0 @ Dec 4 2007, 09:33 PM) Per...   Dec 6 2007, 04:58 PM
|- - David   QUOTE (CryptoEngineer @ Dec 6 2007, 04:58...   Dec 6 2007, 06:46 PM
- - Aussie   Now that is really cool!   Dec 5 2007, 03:49 AM
- - edstrick   I'm lauging so hard I can't see what I...   Dec 5 2007, 09:37 AM
- - edstrick   What we need is to change the labor laws to make M...   Dec 7 2007, 08:58 AM


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