ExoMars rover demonstrator |
ExoMars rover demonstrator |
May 15 2008, 11:57 AM
Post
#1
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 646 Joined: 23-December 05 From: Forest of Dean Member No.: 617 |
The BBC has a story on the new ExoMars rover technology demonstrator. "The MDA prototype can be viewed much like a car without its body. What you see in these pictures from a recent test session is essentially an undercarriage" -- which is good, because it's clearly not designed to look good
-------------------- --
Viva software libre! |
|
|
May 15 2008, 12:12 PM
Post
#2
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2918 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrénées Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
Full in-line quote removed.
We'll have to set up a poll one day to decide which will be the ugliest : ExoMars or MSL BTW, your link's not working -------------------- |
|
|
May 15 2008, 01:27 PM
Post
#3
|
|
Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2262 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Melbourne - Oz Member No.: 16 |
-------------------- |
|
|
May 15 2008, 01:55 PM
Post
#4
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2918 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrénées Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
Wouah! I first though it was HUGE... until I sew the 2nd picture.
She looks very "primitive" at this stage -------------------- |
|
|
May 15 2008, 03:39 PM
Post
#5
|
|
Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
Is this essentially equivalent to the "scarecrow" mobility system model for MSL?
I agree it does look rather primitive... --Emily -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
|
|
|
May 15 2008, 04:52 PM
Post
#6
|
|
Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14431 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Yeah - there's another one the same called Bridget that was here in Leicester a few weeks ago. I was in Cambridge launching a balloon at the time, but basically it's a joystick-it rover.
Doug |
|
|
May 15 2008, 08:04 PM
Post
#7
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1281 Joined: 18-December 04 From: San Diego, CA Member No.: 124 |
Curious that the wheels are joined to the axels on the outside vs. the JPL way....
Is this the design that will be on the final article? Anybody hazard a reason as why this way would be preferred? -------------------- Lyford Rome
"Zis is not nuts, zis is super-nuts!" Mathematician Richard Courant on viewing an Orion test |
|
|
Oct 17 2008, 06:27 PM
Post
#8
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 568 Joined: 20-April 05 From: Silesia Member No.: 299 |
ESA to Delay Mars Rover Mission
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0810...-marsrover.html PARIS — European Space Agency (ESA) governments tentatively have agreed to delay the launch of Europe's first-ever Mars rover by a little more than two years, to 2016, as part of a broader effort to rein in project costs and seek deeper cooperation with NASA and the Russian space agency, European government officials said. -------------------- Free software for planetary science (including Cassini Image Viewer).
http://members.tripod.com/petermasek/marinerall.html |
|
|
Oct 17 2008, 07:46 PM
Post
#9
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 242 Joined: 21-December 04 Member No.: 127 |
I've got a very bad feeling about this delay...the cost cap at $1B Euro is going to be a real challenge and I just don't see how NASA will have the funds to chip in additional money. Slipping from 11 to 13 to 16 sure seems like kicking the ball down the road every time real money needs to be spent on it.
|
|
|
Oct 17 2008, 08:47 PM
Post
#10
|
|
The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
I just have a gut feeling this rover will never reach Mars. Sorry, I just do.
-------------------- |
|
|
Oct 17 2008, 09:04 PM
Post
#11
|
|
Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14431 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Totally agree. It's as far off now as it was when first thought of.
Doug |
|
|
Oct 17 2008, 10:26 PM
Post
#12
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 646 Joined: 23-December 05 From: Forest of Dean Member No.: 617 |
From the article it seems that the problem is budget rather than engineering. The quoted costs look comparable to the MER, - the same magnitude, at least, allowing a hand-waving +/- 30% for only one rover, inflation, and the absence of the previous experience with Mars landers available to JPL when Athena kicked off. My uninformed guess would therefore be that if it doesn't fly in 2016, we'll be into the 2020s before there's a realistic hope for an ESA Mars rover (and indeed any soft-lander.) The cost of putting tin on Mars is unlikely to fall, after all.
Dang BTW, for some reason I completely missed the follow-on comments after originally posting the BBC story; sorry for the busticated link back in May. -------------------- --
Viva software libre! |
|
|
Oct 18 2008, 04:34 PM
Post
#13
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: 19-March 05 From: Princeton, NJ, USA Member No.: 212 |
sadly, I also agree that with this new delay, the likelihood of this mission launching has greatly decreased. If I recall correctly, the original proposal was for a 2009 launch.
more details here at this recent AWST online article also featured in a recent issue: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/sto.../aw100608p2.xml ken |
|
|
Guest_PhilCo126_* |
Oct 20 2008, 11:41 AM
Post
#14
|
Guests |
Indeed delayed by 2 years... nothing yet on the ESA.int website ?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7677349.stm |
|
|
Oct 21 2008, 03:54 PM
Post
#15
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 220 Joined: 13-October 05 Member No.: 528 |
This also comes shortly after the other large planetary mission for the next decade, Bepi-Colombo, had a large cost increase that almost resulted in cancelation.
That mission had been studied and designed for over a decade. Compare that to Exo-Mars, which has been on a very fast track in EAS for the last few years. Budget estimates on Exo-Mars have more than doubled in the last three years, from less than 600 million to 1.2 billion Euros. I'm not surprised someone in the European Union finally said 'stop' to the upward spiral. |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 20th April 2024 - 09:48 AM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |