[X] My Assistant

[Marcel]

I was wondering: since (especially Spirit) dust accumulation isn't a big concern anymore nowadays, we come to the next vulnerable part of the rovers, being their batteries (which has been discussed some months ago in another thread).
I read that it could take a 1000 load-reload cycles before their capacity declines. Now, suppose that the batteries are history by sol 1000 and they don't have any capacity left: then what ?

Would the rover be dead ? Or would it boot up at sunrise again every morning and be able to do any science or driving solely on the array output ? And could this mean that not even the batteries are a possible fatal malfunction (and thus, the rovers could still continue to stay in touch) ? In that case, this mission could continue well beyond any expectation we all have. A potential fatal breakdown of a cricial (not redundant) part could take many years litterally. Especially thinking about the semiconductors that are so tough, cabling that has been made for the environment up there, everything prooved to be so sustaining, that it gets quite hard to think of anything that ends it right away. They work, they prooved to work for muuuuuuch longer than expected and there's no RTG that can run out of energy.

I want MSL to have arrays. And i want it to land in a windy place.

[djellison]

Well - look at Voyager. 25 years + with an RTG.

I really really cant see how a solar array could help extend that on Mars.

Doug