Questions tagged [mars-exploration-rover]
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Why do the more recent landers across Mars and Moon not use the cushion approach?
I was wondering why the (relatively) recent Perseverance (USA), Chandrayaan-2,3 (India) and Luna-25 (Russia) don't leverage the advantage of the cushion based approach that Spirit, Opportunity, and ...
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Why hasn’t SpaceX sent anything to Mars yet?
SpaceX has the rockets to send some payload to Mars. The Falcon heavy can carry up to 16.8 tons to Mars according to this answer: Why can Falcon Heavy bring 4.2 times as much mass to Mars than F9, but ...
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How is the temperature of motors used in robotic arm and wheels maintained in a martian rover
The electronic components of the mar's rover are protected from external extreme temperatures with the help of WEB warm electronic box. But what about the motors(which is also an electronic component) ...
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Why did Spirit (MER-A) lose a wheel?
I was watching a documentary called Expedition Mars: Spirit and Opportunity (It's really good, I recommend it, you can find it on Disney+) and it said Spirit lost control of its frontmost right side ...
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Rover wheel placement
Why are the center wheels of the Curiosity rover not in line with the chassis?
I understand when turning, one side is in line with an arc it will make. Would the other side's wheels not be on the same ...
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What modifications would be necessary to make to a Mars rover to let it land on Phobos or Deimos?
What modifications would be necessary to make to a Mars rover to let it land on Phobos or Deimos? In this question, I found out that a Mars rover would need a host of modifications to land on Phobos ...
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When did Opportunity do its record-breaking traverse? [duplicate]
Based on an article by the Planetary Society, rover Opportunity used to hold the record for longest distance (214 meters) in a single sol. On what (Earth-)date did Opportunity do its longest drive?
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Do we use masers, lasers or infrared lasers to send data from deep space back to Earth? If not, why not?
I have posted in a couple of places (including here) about the recent (in the past year) news about future probes, landers, etc. using strong visible light lasers to send data back to us at much ...
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"Why don't they use the little helicopter to fly just above the rover's solar panels and blow the dust off?" [duplicate]
The Mars Rover solar panels are covered in dust and can't generate enough power. It is going to kill the mission. There isn't enough wind in the location where its at to blow the dust off. Why not use ...
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Which Mars probe went to the highest elevation and which one to the lowest on Mars so far?
Considering Mars' mean atmospheric pressure of 610 Pa (0.088 psi) its "sea level altitude", how high went the highest probe/rover that ever successfully landed on Mars so far (respectively, ...
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Cost of cleaning a rover up to COSPAR IVc standard
To this date no rover or lander was able to access the so-called Mars Special Regions (like where seasonal flows occur) because of the required COSPAR IVc level (no more than 30 spores for the whole ...
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How many spacecraft bounced like a ball on Mars? How many tried to?
The answer to Why a rover bounces after landing on Mars? is "the Mars Exploration Rovers" of which there were two.
However, they might not be the only spacecraft to use bouncing like a ball ...
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Why was a nuclear battery system not used for the Mars Spirit and Opportunity rovers?
The Mars Spirit and Opportunity rovers exceeded expectations by working for many years past the planned 90 day mission. Why was a Nuclear Battery System not used for power generation, instead of ...
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How did the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit & Opportunity) land upright? [duplicate]
In every animation depicting the landing of the MERs, the tetrahedral airbag compartment is bouncing & tumbling after surface contact. How did Spirit & Oppy ensure they would come to rest ...
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Acoustics in Space
Acoustics is an important aspect of not just our architecture but how we and other deep ocean creature interact with each other and the surface. It is known to be used in submarines and other research ...
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What was the driving record of each rover on Mars in one sol, and when?
Both Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit had a top speed of 180 meters/hour on flat hard ground, but their hazard avoidance software caused them to stop every 10 seconds for 20 seconds to observe and ...
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Why a rover bounces after landing on Mars?
Sometime ago I was watching a video which showed that when a rover lands on mars surface it will keep bouncing on Mars' surface like a ball until it gets rid of energy and then it becomes static.
But ...
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Why A=2 and B=1 in the call signs for Spirit and Opportunity?
The Martian rover Spirit held the call signs MER-A and MER-2. Opportunity was called MER-B and MER-1. The assignment A=2 seems backwards; logic would suggest A=1. Why is this so?
Based on comments ...
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Have the rovers on Mars encountered anything unrecognizable to geologists?
We have quite a few rovers trundling around Mars. Just from reading the popular news, I get the impression that everything encountered so far (minerals, rocks, strata, formations, structures, etc.) ...
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Opportunity's last tau was 10.8; what does that mean and how is tau defined and measured?
@ahiijny added a direct link to the Sol 5110-5114 MER B Downlink Report. These are the final days that signals were received from Opportunity.
The message "Tau Value is NOT a Typographical Error" ...
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What was the last message to Opportunity today (13 Feb '19)?
Several articles have mentioned that the last ever commands were sent to the unresponsive Opportunity rover today by NASA. Now, I know that it wasn't a verbal message, but was there anything digital ...
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