Daniel PomarèdeCuriosity: 4844th day of the mission
Image captured 6 hours ago.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
#Mars #Curiosity #rover #Sol4844 #CuriosityRover #space #science
Scale TheoryThis is the best of the best for the cost of this tire?
NASA, you're fired. WE were ripped off, but fleeced by the oligarchy with too much and gas people who don't need another "dollar" for the rest of their lives.
Ann EffesBuilding a rover is like building a race car: Spend a fortune on making everything as light as possible, and by “possible” I mean: light enough to last just long enough. If it lasts LONGER, it wasn’t lightweight enough. Because transporting mass to Mars is incredibly expensive, making things lighter is therefore the first step to saving money. And after all, the component has exceeded its planned service life by a factor of 7.
So indeed suboptimal: Still too sturdy.
Yeah yeah, got it, but this is still the best of the best? Wow, okay next excuse.
Seems a wheel from a lawnmower/shopping cart (made lighter with the most expensive metals/plastic) would last longer.
How about putting what was wasted in research for anti-magravity/ion/alternatives or just half/quarter/eighth of what CERN has spent.
Common sense, its societies new superpower. Rockets don't even make sense worried about weight.
"Seems a wheel from a lawnmower/shopping cart…"
Do you know how big Curiosity is? You may confuse that with earlier rovers, but Curiosity is as big as a smaller car.
You are suggesting putting shopping cart wheels to a VW Golf.
Also lawnmower/shopping car wheels are very primitive wheel constructions with no consideration of weight at all. It is quite easy to make something which is as sturdy but weights about 1/10th.
NASA would attempt at least 1/20th.
To give you an idea of how well the shopping cart's wheels would fit, here is a photo of the rover in question: Curiosity is the big one on the right. Also note how wide the wheels are and and consider the potential benefits of very wide tires on sandy soil.
https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/7ryuxl/a_size_comparison_of_three_generations_of_mars/
Cybarbie@Ann_Effes @SCALETHEORY @pomarede I think by now we have to realize that NASA scientists lie through their teeth about how long things are expected to last just so they extend the mission with "oh well it's there now it would be a real shame to waste it amazing its lasted this long... nooo us? would we do that? never!"
AccordionBruce@nf3xn @Ann_Effes @SCALETHEORY @pomarede
Never occurred to me those Voyager scientists were planing a generations–long job-retention plan for themselves
Never occurred to me those Voyager scientists were planing a generations–long job-retention plan for themselves
@AccordionBruce @Ann_Effes @SCALETHEORY @pomarede look how much _science_ we can fit in this >slaps roof<
@AccordionBruce @Ann_Effes @SCALETHEORY @pomarede on a more sad and serious note we are talking about turning off missions like Juno due to cuts when the pedo in chief is burning through the NASA budget in a couple of weeks with his reverse regime change.
jimfl@Ann_Effes @SCALETHEORY @pomarede Building a bridge that doesn’t fall down is easy. Building a bridge that just barely doesn’t fall down is challenging