Jim - 6/6/2007 7:03 PMall of it is on the turret of the arm
The RCS and descent thrusters have changed and the mobility system is deployed during the repel
MKremer - 6/6/2007 8:21 PMSo, more similar to what the Viking scoop/shaker did than the complex, multi-arm sample processing/transfers in the video?
Kaputnik - 29/2/2008 4:07 PMhttp://www.space.com/news/ap-080228-flagship-mars-overruns.htmlErm, presumably it's a mistake when they write that MSL was supposed to use ET insulation???
grakenverb - 1/3/2008 1:30 PMCool video, but i have to wonder why they just don't put legs on the "sky crane" and have it land, then lower the rover to the surface once the whole thing has stopped moving. I know that much smarter people than myself have conceived of this thing, but it all looks rather Rube Goldberg to me.
scienceguy - 1/3/2008 2:16 PMHow deep will MSL dig for its samples? I was just wondering because so far other Mars robots haven't detected Boron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Copper, Zinc, or other micronutrients that plants need in the soils so far sampled. I was thinking that they just need to dig deeper.
Jim - 1/3/2008 6:34 PMQuotegrakenverb - 1/3/2008 1:30 PMCool video, but i have to wonder why they just don't put legs on the "sky crane" and have it land, then lower the rover to the surface once the whole thing has stopped moving. I know that much smarter people than myself have conceived of this thing, but it all looks rather Rube Goldberg to me.How would the "legs" fit in the aeroshell? Short legs would have plume problems. Apollo LM, Surveyor dropped that last few feetthe skycrane method is applicable to many packages.
Kaputnik - 1/3/2008 1:09 PMHow do the plume issues scale with size? What I'm thinking of here is a larger, human scale, rover dropped via skycrane. With roof-mounted descent propulsion system would it be feasible to delete the whole bridle system in favour of a rigid system... sort of a 'roof rack' I suppose!
grakenverb - 1/3/2008 4:18 PMI just hope that the "Keep it Simple, Stupid" theory hasn't been abandoned for some cool-looking, complicated, engineers delight.