Daniel PomarèdeCuriosity: 4844th day of the mission
Image captured 6 hours ago.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
#Mars #Curiosity #rover #Sol4844 #CuriosityRover #space #science
Winchell Chung ⚛🚀Someone was a bit optimistic in their estimation of wheel durability
Ann EffesAh! I stand corrected.
It didn't occur to me that they would optimize to a specific number of years, instead of "infinity". Obvious in hindsight.
🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑@nyrath @Ann_Effes @pomarede
Very few engineered devices with either moving or electronic parts are actually engineered for more than a five year life. Some things are rated for ten year life, but that's actually rare. Things that last longer are due to having good margins, not due to a longer planned lifespan. Especially not for years with NO maintenance.
Very few engineered devices with either moving or electronic parts are actually engineered for more than a five year life. Some things are rated for ten year life, but that's actually rare. Things that last longer are due to having good margins, not due to a longer planned lifespan. Especially not for years with NO maintenance.
Nick@brouhaha @nyrath The latter is usually the case for things headed to space, especially if you can't practically switch over to a redundant spare. Since you went to all the money and effort to put it in space, you want to make sure it works for the intended mission life with high confidence, so you add a fair bit of margin, which means it has a good chance to last quite a bit longer than the intended mission life. But, as @Ann_Effes points out, there are costs to doing that, so you try not to go too overboard. @pomarede
hyratel@internic @brouhaha @nyrath @Ann_Effes @pomarede consider also that that wheel is disintegrating, but only from the main support ring inwards. The outer 1/3 looks still fairly intact and loadbearing. They'll have to be mindful of what they drive over, to avoid getting too much into "Air Sand" because the ground pressure on that wheel is going to go way up. but it can still ride over rocks just fine; the spokes and support ring should take care of that much.
@internic @brouhaha @nyrath @Ann_Effes @pomarede something that's noted in a lot of the literature around the wheels is an academically surprised tone over 'cracks seem to propagate from corner features of the grouser chevrons' which is .... Engineering 100: That's a stress concentration. Why are you surprised. (Percy's wheels have Wave grousers instead, and they're spaced closer together, so should hold up better)