Martians striking from a hidden base score a direct hit on Curiosity - wind sensors damaged
36 replies, posted
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19338870[/url]
[quote=BBC News][B]Nasa has reported its first setback in the Curiosity rover mission to Mars.[/B]
Damage has been sustained by sensor circuits on the robot's weather station that take wind readings.
The mission team stresses this is not a major problem and will merely degrade some measurements - not prevent them.
It is not certain how the damage occurred but engineers suspect those damn aliens did it again. Or alternatively, perhaps surface stones thrown up during Curiosity's rocket-powered landing may have struck the circuits and broken their wiring.
Nasa is describing the news as an isolated "disappointment" in what has otherwise been a spectacular start to the mission.
Javier Gomez-Elvira, the principal investigator on the broken instrument - the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (Rems) - said he was hopeful of finding a good way to get past the issue.
"We are working to recover as much functionality as possible," he told reporters.
Curiosity - also known as the Mars Science Laboratory - touched down in the equatorial Gale Crater two weeks ago.
It will operate on Mars for at least two Earth years, looking for evidence that the planet may once have had the conditions suitable to host microbial life.
Engineers are close to completing their programme of post-landing check-outs on Curiosity.
This has involved powering up all of the machine's instruments, and it was during this testing that the problem was found on Rems.
The weather station is a Spanish contribution to the rover project. It records air and ground temperature, air pressure and humidity, wind speed and direction, as well the amount ultraviolet radiation falling on the surface.
These parameters are measured from sensors distributed around the rover, but a number are held on two finger-like mini-booms positioned halfway up the vehicle's camera mast. This is where the wind sensors are located.
The Rems team first noticed there was something wrong when readings from the side-facing boom where being returned saturated at high and low values.
Further investigation suggested small wires exposed on the sensor circuits were open, probably severed. It is permanent damage.
No-one can say for sure how this happened, but engineers are working on the theory that grit thrown on to the rover by the descent crane's exhaust plume cut the small wires.
"It degrades our ability to detect wind speed and direction when the wind is blowing from a particular direction, but we think we can work around that," said Curiosity's deputy project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada.[/quote]
nice title,sarcasm
Your titles are the best, smurfy.
[editline]1[/editline]
If a bit misleading and confusing.
nuke them from orbut
The rocks, they're striking back.
They want vengeance over their fallen brother!
dammit. at least it wasn't a really important module.
the goddamn rock utilized energy from our own thrusters to empower it's attack
so cunning
Told ya they'd be pissed.
The rocks are mad about the laser incident.
[QUOTE=Native Hunter;37345887]nice title,sarcasm[/QUOTE]
Sorry, did you think the Martians were really attacking?
Smurfy you should write a sci-fi book. I'd buy it.
Don't worry, Curiosity can still fend off the martian guerilla attacks.
[img]http://seriouslyguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/mars-attacked.png[/img]
[QUOTE=smurfy;37346247]Sorry, did you think the Martians were really attacking?[/QUOTE]
I want to believe.
Fuck. When its lifespan is up, we'll detonate the nuke inside. That'll show those fucker martians!
We shouldn't have started shooting the martians
[QUOTE=JohnnyOnFlame;37345940]The rocks, they're striking back.
They want vengeance over their fallen brother![/QUOTE]
Well this 'attack' happened during the landing, which was before then, so...
Small error that is easy to overlook, but still, I really don't get why you'd leave sensitive wires exposed on the outside of the rover given the nature of the landing.
[QUOTE=Fatfatfatty;37346455]We shouldn't have started shooting the martians[/QUOTE]
everone is a martian and deserved to live
[QUOTE=demoguy08;37346855]Small error that is easy to overlook, but still, I really don't get why you'd leave sensitive wires exposed on the outside of the rover given the nature of the landing.[/QUOTE]
I'm sure they had their reasons.
Woah, here we go with another Iraq
this is why they really need to invest in a small, very accurate arm, with a claw, screwdriver, a way to deposit solder or, conductive epoxy, and a soldering iron attached to it, have it so that it has a range of motion that allows it to reach anywhere on the rover, put one on each side, this way they'd beable to make some small repairs if needed, seeing as it wouldn't be heavy duty they could make it as light as they want
[QUOTE=viperfan7;37347270]this is why they really need to invest in a small, very accurate arm, with a claw, screwdriver, a way to deposit solder or, conductive epoxy, and a soldering iron attached to it, have it so that it has a range of motion that allows it to reach anywhere on the rover, put one on each side, this way they'd beable to make some small repairs if needed, seeing as it wouldn't be heavy duty they could make it as light as they want[/QUOTE]
Or just save money by giving it a tougher shell with a stronger and preferably lighter material. Or just increase the thickness a bit in more vital areas.
[QUOTE=Dysgalt;37347392]Or just save money by giving it a tougher shell with a stronger and preferably lighter material. Or just increase the thickness a bit in more vital areas.[/QUOTE]
would that not increase the weight even more then a small arm able to make small repairs, thus increasing the cost of the launch by a few thousand more then just the arm(s)?
[QUOTE=Dysgalt;37347392]Or just save money by giving it a tougher shell with a stronger and preferably lighter material. Or just increase the thickness a bit in more vital areas.[/QUOTE]
You honestly think NASA would have cheeped out on the materials [B]for a [U]mars[/U] mission[/B]?
[QUOTE=chimitos;37347576]You honestly think NASA would have cheeped out on the materials [B]for a [U]mars[/U] mission[/B]?[/QUOTE]
It's all about weight.
You could make it mil-spec and it could survive just about anything you threw at it but you what Mil-spec equipment is like? It's heavy. Extra weight means additional engineering and space for more fuel consumed pulling it all out of the gravity well.
I read somethign a while ago that said that a launch costs around $1.5 million per pound.
Pretty much the main reason that so much equipment we send up to space breaks is because it's extremely fragile because there's only enough material used to get the job done with no margin for rough handling.
Rock Qaeda has claimed responsibility for this latest attack, claiming that these continued 'unsanctioned' attacks upon Martian rocks will be met with Holy Resistance.
one of these days smurfy, the shit you say about the martians attacking in titles will be true, and we'll be all 'Haha smurfy another funny title' and go back to being chill
and next day we'll all be chowing on martian cock
IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT
[QUOTE=Cloak Raider;37348214]one of these days smurfy, the shit you say about the martians attacking in titles will be true, and we'll be all 'Haha smurfy another funny title' and go back to being chill
and next day we'll all be chowing on martian cock
IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT[/QUOTE]
Maybe he's one of them.
That's ridiculous I'm from earth just like you. Now let's all go and breathe oxygen like we always do here on Earth, gotta love that oxygen right fellow earthlings, and how about that water, they don't even have that on mars as far as you know
-snip Oh well.
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