Kaito
Orbiquiz Coordinator
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As we all know, Spirit has had some tough times: http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=5313
On there, i suggested a way to keep the mars rover's power up:
There was a mini debate on this topic, read the above link to see it.
So, instead of spamming that post, here's a way we can discuss this, and other ways of keeping the Mars rovers lifespan up.
Following DaveS's last post:
Well, the sun is more powerful then any laser, true, but the laser is more direct. You can put a match head out in the sun and it wont ignite. You can buy a laser, disable its limiting system (theres a limiting system in the laser pointer to make it safe), and point it at a match head, and it will ignite. That is what I'm talking about: More direct, more powerful.
On there, i suggested a way to keep the mars rover's power up:
Hm....Just a thought, for future Rovers: Instead of just depending on the sun, why not have a Module orbiting above the planet, and have it just orbit in a rough line on where the rover is traveling. The module would be a special instrument that collects sunlight and is used to power a high intensity laser. When the rover needs an extra "boost" of energy, the Module would adjust its flight path to flight directly over the rover, then Fire its laser as long as it could (limiting factors would be: Necessary power, the power the module has, the angle, or the weather). This would give the Rover a longer life span in terms of energy, and since it's a high intensity laser, the dust would offer little resistance. Just a thought
There was a mini debate on this topic, read the above link to see it.
So, instead of spamming that post, here's a way we can discuss this, and other ways of keeping the Mars rovers lifespan up.
Following DaveS's last post:
The sun is going to be more powerful than any laser you can come up with. You'd also need utilise some of the solar power to actually power the orbiter so that's less power for that laser of yours! And that orbiter would most likely be so huge it would cost several billion dollars to just design, produce and launch that you could afford several MSL-class rovers.
The MERs from start to launch only cost $420 million a piece. So for the cost of that orbiter you probably could get yourself 4 or 5 MERs.
Well, the sun is more powerful then any laser, true, but the laser is more direct. You can put a match head out in the sun and it wont ignite. You can buy a laser, disable its limiting system (theres a limiting system in the laser pointer to make it safe), and point it at a match head, and it will ignite. That is what I'm talking about: More direct, more powerful.