Questions tagged [rovers]
Questions about vehicles sent to extraterrestrial bodies, generally for use in data collection.
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Will the Rosalind Franklin (ExoMars) rover solar panels be able to clear themselves of dust by tilting?
The BBC News item 'Rosalind Franklin' Mars rover assembly completed contains a short video, and I show some screen shots below.
It looks like the panels unfold twice, from two stacks of three, to six ...
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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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DIY Lunar regolith simulant
I'm looking to make a physical lunar regolith stimulant at home. I don't care about chemical composition, color, or anything like that, but I'd like it to behave similarly to actual lunar regolith in ...
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Could a Mars rover go to Phobos or Deimos instead?
Could a Mars rover go to Phobos or Deimos instead of going to Mars? The choice is made after launch, and no further modifications can be made to the rover. Could it land safely? Up to what point could ...
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What are the advantages of landers rather than rovers?
Landers are constructed around a centerpiece that its power sources protrude from the side, while rovers power sources are usually built into the rear. Landers are a type of spacecraft built to land ...
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How far away is Jezero crater from Isidis Planitia? Can Perserverance go to Isidis Planitia?
according to this map Beagle 2's landing site (Isidis Plantina) isn't (too) far from Jezero Crater (landing site of rover Perserverance) If the rover were to turn around towards the location of Isidis ...
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Were there backup routes planned for the Apollo LRV?
I just finished reading "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin, an amazing read. For the missions involving the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV, Apollo 15-17), there are some mentions of astronauts ...
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Is lunar exploration going to need a whole heck of a lot of RTGs? If so, have they started firing up the RTG-making reactors yet?
The November 16, 2021 Northrop Grumman Press Release Highly specialized team to design vehicle for sustainable lunar surface mobility operations begins
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC), is ...
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What happened to the Apollo moon rovers? [duplicate]
I wonder, what happened to the moon rovers? Were they left behind or brought back?
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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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Download all Perseverance Raw Images
I want to make an archive of all the Raw Images Percy will make during her mission. I would love to have separate folders for each Sol. The plan is to run a script which then grabs the images from the ...
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Why does Curiosity have two images of itself on itself, or is one a QR-code?
The first image in CNN"s New images show Mars as you've never seen it before shows a partial "selfie" by the Curiosity rover which includes what looks like two images on the rover itself.
The one on ...
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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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Is there any chance Mars-3's Prop-M rover deployed automatically and "roved"?
Mars-3 landed on the surface of Mars and began transmitting. It carried a Prop-M rover.
The lander started transmitting from the surface but went silent about 14 seconds later.
Did rover deployment ...
CommunityBot
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How to obtain 3d data from MER Spirit "Planetary Data System" products/files?
TL;DR
Given products available in this page, how can I get a 3d model, or at least a point cloud, or as a last chance just a suitable depth map for depth map viewer, for this image?
What I tried
I ...
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After nine years on Mars, has anything on Curiosity broken yet?
As per Wikipedia's Curiosity (rover), it landed nine years ago today at 6 August 2012, 05:17:57 UTC.
This is yet another testament to NASA spacecraft reliability.
Since landing, has anything actually ...
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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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Why don't we send a rover to a pole of Mercury?
Mercury is among the least explored planets, despite its vicinity to Earth. Just two probes have been sent to Mercury, a third one is underway and no probe landed softly on Mercury so far, Messenger ...
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Fate of human-made objects on Mars
Now that Opportunity is dead, and since there are ideas for future human missions to Mars, I wonder if there is a project to collect all our rovers and landers or at least label as historical sites ...
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Wheels vs. tracks for rovers
On Earth, there are plenty of examples of vehicles that roam difficult terrain having tracks instead of wheels, while all (at least those I am aware of) extraterrestrial rovers have wheels.
Is there ...
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Why wasn't robotic arm used to free Spirit rover from sand trap? (and other things...)
On Sol 1892 of its mission (01/May/2009) Spirit rover stopped its travel on Mars surface due to a "sand trap", initially (optimistically) defined as "difficult terrain".
I have ...
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For how long could the Mars helicopter Ingenuity keep up with the Perseverance rover if it wanted to?
Wikipedia's Mars Helicopter Ingenuity says:
It could potentially cover a distance of up to 300 metres (980 ft) per flight.
Perseverance is somewhat similar to Curiosity which drove about 22970 ...
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How does the Curiosity rover survive dust storms on Mars?
According to the answers to this question, a dust storm on Mars can last for many days.
Dust is a serious problem for mechanical joints if they use lubrication, because it may stick to the lubricant ...
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What happens to defunct lunar and Mars rovers? What technological barriers prevent humanity from creating a perpetual rover?
What happens to defunct lunar and Mars rovers?
What technological barriers prevent humanity from creating a perpetual rover with sun batteries or nuclear portable reactors for use on Mars, the Moon, ...
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Are there "rover-friendly region maps" for Mars?
Rover missions are hard - you need to put them down somewhere where they can safely drive around and measure (hopefully a variety of) interesting things.
Future rovers may have legs as discussed in ...
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Is the Beagle fixable?
We have since learned that Beagle 2 failed to operate successfully, potentially because its solar panels didn't open properly.
Now, a collaboration between De Montfort University Leicester (DMU)
and ...
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How are the Mars Rovers maintained?
I am really curious in finding out how the Mars Rovers are maintained. The communications with the software could be done as long as there are no connection malfunctions, and I suppose they have a ...
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Microscopes in space?
There are a lot of telescopes in space (optical, radio, X-ray and Gamma-ray), but how about microscopes?
Does the ISS have a general-purpose microscope? It could come in handy for failure analysis or ...
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Curiosity: Why did they "reinvent the wheel" instead of using pressure tires?
Curiosity rover's wheels seem a bit tired and show signs of wear and tear, as reported for example in this Discovery News article from May 22, 2013. This damage only increased since then and wheels ...
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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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Fancy locomotion for rovers
For its upcoming ExoMars mission, ESA's rover "Rosalind Franklin" can use its wheels like legs in an insect-like gait, to walk out of deep sand that it can't drive out of.
A brief video ...
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Has any rover dragged a magnet across any solar system body to see what gets picked up or made magnetic measurements of specific rocks or particles?
On Earth, amateur and sometimes professional scientists collect dust from the tops of buildings or mountains (see also) and separate it with a magnet to obtain meteoric material. Not all meteoric ...
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Has there ever been a dish antenna on a lander? If so, which was the first? How about rovers?
At about 04:49 in Scott Manley's January 30, 2022 video Deep Space Radiation, Black Holes And Other Questions - Episode 14 a painting by the science fiction and ...
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Is Opportunity still in shape to explore the landing site of the Schiaparelli lander?
According to one of the answers to a question concerning Opportunity, the rover has a top speed of 180 meters per hour (no reference).
Based on daily performances however a reasonable speed estimate ...
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Methane internal combustion engines for rovers on Mars and Moon. Feasibility?
It seems possible to produce methane and oxygen from the atmospheric CO2 and icy soil on Mars, and from icy regolith in the polar craters of the Moon. It has been suggested that CH4+O2 could be used ...
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How will Perseverance's selfie skills compare to Curiosity's? Will it have any additional selfie-related capabilities?
The design of the Mars 2020 rover Perseverance benefits from years of operational experience with Curiosity. While 2020's instrument suite differs in several ways it looks remarkably similar to ...
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What would have to be done to Perseverance's twin rover Optimism to make it capable of a limited Mars roving mission?
A comment under If the James Web Space Telescope goes up in smoke, is there a backup? mentions that the Perseverance rover has a twin and supports that with a link. I looked, expecting to see some ...
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Which rover(s) didn't have wheels?
The question Wheels vs. tracks for rovers and Does new technology make it advantageous to have walking rovers? ask about the possible use of treads or legs instead of wheels on rovers from a ...
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How can electronics on board JWST survive the low operating temperature while it's difficult to survive lunar nights?
Compared to the temperatures encountered in lunar nights, the desired operating temperature of the James Webb Space Telescope is very low. Lunar nights are typically -170°C while the operating ...
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How much wax is on the Moon? (Lunar Roving Vehicles)
I found the Cody's Lab videos from Scott Manley's video as described in this answer. Browsing through I learned from the first 30 seconds of Hot Wax Bottle? that the phase change of wax was used on ...
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Long lived solar powered rovers without radioisotope heater units (like Zhurong), for use beyond Mars
The Yutu rovers use RHUs to stay warm and survive the two week long lunar nights, every other rover uses nuclear material as well (except Sojourner), but the Zhurong rover uses a novel storage-heating ...
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How many solar system bodies have had their magnetic fields directly measured?
Discussion below this post lead me to wonder:
Question: How many solar system bodies have had their magnetic fields directly measured?
Inferences from radio or spectroscopic observations don't count ...
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Do Curiosity and Perseverance have gyrocompasses? Has any rover had one? If so, what kind and how do they work?
There is discussion of a gyrocompass in comments on the page How does Curiosity know how to point and move it's high gain antenna in real time? but so far I don't think there is a hard "Yes&...
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Do lunar rovers on the near side of the Moon need a relay communication satellite?
Wikipedia says direct communication is not possible from the far side of the moon. So I'm guessing it should be possible for the satellite to communicate directly without relay satellite from the near ...
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How will the Exomars rover communicate back to Earth?
I see here that the Exomars rover has only two UHF monopole antennas.
Two UHF monopole antennas are used to communicate with Mars orbiters, including the Trace Gas Orbiter.
Does it mean that it ...
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Why can't the VIPER lunar rover recharge its 100-day power source using its solar panels?
update 1: NASA wants ideas for keeping Moon missions powered in the dark
update 2: NASA’s Artemis Rover to Land Near Nobile Region of Moon’s South Pole which is informative here
Source NASA
...
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At what inclined grade would Curiosity or Perseverance require twice the electrical power to drive compared to driving on flat terrain?
Motors have losses and friction, and compaction of soil by a rovers wheels are lossy as well. Driving over bumps/topography requires extra work going up that isn't recovered when going back down.
The ...
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Did Perseverance visit South Seítah?
This summer, Ingenuity found a track that could yield interesting science results. Has Perseverance driven down South Seítah yet? If not, has the possibility of sending Perseverance there been ...
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What connection do Mars rovers use to send data to Earth?
How do Mars rovers send data back to Earth? Do they have some kind of built in WI-FI routers or is there any other connection?
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What are the maximum data capacities of the active rovers on Mars?
Many rovers have been sent to Mars and, as now, some are still working there. Does anyone know the maximum data capacity of each active rover?
Curiosity
Perseverance
Zhurong
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