[X] My Assistant

[karolp]

I am having difficulty finding decent comparison data, especially for the planned ExoMars's Pasteur rover as well as the planned MSL and ancient L's. I keep wondering: if we put them all at Oppy's current position, which one would be the first to reach Victoria's rim? I guess one should take into consideration not only the average speed (which I have never seen presented in a nice table for comparison) but also maneuverability and modes of navigation...

[dvandorn]

I will make a point about the Lunakhods... yes, they put in impressive numbers for distance traveled by an unmanned rover.

But they did precious little science while setting those records.

As I recall (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong), the Lunakhods carried no sensors for in-situ analysis of rocks or soils. Not even any "sky science" sensors to detect radiation or magnetic environment details.

The only active scientific experiment I can recall, on Lunakhod 2, was a soil penetrometer. Which gives you more in terms of engineering information -- about bearing strength, cohesiveness, etc., of lunar soil -- than it gives you real scientific data. (Yes, they also had passive laser reflectors, one of which has never been acquired and the other of which is in an unknown location on the lunar surface, making its use somewhat less than useful... in point of fact, the return from the laser reflectors may have been greater had they been attached to stationary landers and not to rovers.)

In other words, the Lunakhods were primarily engineering demonstrations, with almost all scientific return removed to ensure the success of the engineering tasks. (And they were propaganda tools, to show that the USSR was more capable of roving the Moon than Apollo was, though that's a very debatable point.)

So, I'd be a little wary of comparing Lunakhod performances to those of the MERs, or the projected performance of MSL or ExoMars. If all you want to do is demonstrate speed (and, specifically, a speed or range of exploration greater than that of your political rival's system), without giving more than a passing nod to science, it's a little bit easier to accomplish.

Let's hope no one decides they need to prove their bravery or masculinity or any other such nonsense by making a Mars rover that's fast, but not much else...

-the other Doug