... would have gotten blown over, frozen over, or had their electronics fried by solar radiation. Yet Spirit and Opportunity have been there for eight years. What gives?
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Mars's atmosphere is much thinner than that of the Earth at sea level. So even a high wind speed on Mars translates to a relatively small amount of force from the wind, and cannot tip over an MER.
The MERs were built for martian conditions and have ways of surviving some of the environmental hazards. Their electronics are specially built to operate at low temperatures and resist the effects of particle radiation. Despite that, the Spirit rover eventually died and has not been successfully contacted in some time. Only Opportunity is still operating.
The MERs were built for martian conditions and have ways of surviving some of the environmental hazards. Their electronics are specially built to operate at low temperatures and resist the effects of particle radiation. Despite that, the Spirit rover eventually died and has not been successfully contacted in some time. Only Opportunity is still operating.
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Probably a clumsy Martian kicked some sand in its face. ?
Without going to Mars and retrieving the failed rovers, we have no way of knowing why they failed.
You have given some of the likely explanations.
We just have to be thankful for the ones that are still operating.
The science behind those rovers advances with every new one that is built.
So expect more successes and less failures in future.
Without going to Mars and retrieving the failed rovers, we have no way of knowing why they failed.
You have given some of the likely explanations.
We just have to be thankful for the ones that are still operating.
The science behind those rovers advances with every new one that is built.
So expect more successes and less failures in future.
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They were built to handle the extremes you mention and guess what? They HAVE survived! WAY beyond expectations! You DO realize these were only 90 day missions, yes? Well, one has survived anyway. The other is stuck and last I heard has stopped communicating, probably because it isn't getting enough power from the solar panels. There is a faint hope that as the seasons change it will get enough light to restart, but that won't change the fact the wheels are bogged down and can't move. There is a new rover, scheduled to land on August 5th. It is as big as a compact car, weighs in at about a ton, nuclear powered with a decay heat source that will run it for 86 years and they expect it to last for a really LONG time, which means years. They learned a lot from the successes and failures the other two little guys have experienced.
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