I asked Steve Squyres about this some years ago, and he said that it has been extensively used for ground tests and is no longer in a fit state for flight.Also keep in mind with would probably not be able to be deployed from Red Dragon without extensive mods to the later.IMHO
...pictures such as this one makes me think that the rover might just be able to fit through either hatch...
The rovers are six-wheeled, solar-powered robots that stand 1.5 m (4.9 ft) high, 2.3 m (7.5 ft) wide and 1.6 m (5.2 ft) long. They weigh 180 kg (400 lb), 35 kg (80 lb) of which is the wheel and suspension system.
They are too big.
I would bet on a rover with a ground penetrating radar. Similar to what the chinese YUTU had. It can determine how thick the regolith cover over a glacier is. A very important information on designing water retrieval ISRU.
Quote from: Oersted on 05/29/2016 09:23 am...pictures such as this one makes me think that the rover might just be able to fit through either hatch...That appears to be a scale model.
Perhaps the way forward would be to invite University teams to design and build a mini-MER, with similar bogie construction.
Quote from: the_other_Doug on 05/29/2016 01:13 pmQuote from: Oersted on 05/29/2016 09:23 am...pictures such as this one makes me think that the rover might just be able to fit through either hatch...That appears to be a scale model. Or a very tall man, Dougal. Seriously, though, it is a not particularly accurate model.Perhaps the way forward would be to invite University teams to design and build a mini-MER, with similar bogie construction.
There's always Sojourner. Perhaps an updated version?
Quote from: Jimmy Murdok on 05/29/2016 01:44 pmThey are too big.Those are the unfolded dimensions. The rovers were much smaller inside the lander before unfolding the wheels, solar panels and masts.The crawlers you talk about would be very cool but with only two years until lift-off it would be well-nigh impossible to construct new rovers from the ground up. That's why I am talking about using the MER architecture and all the useful hardware they would happen to have at the JPL.
From what I could find, the stowed configuration width would be 48 inches (front wheel width deployed) so you would be good there. Knowing that the web height is only 14.4 inches and looking at the stowed pictures, one would presume the height would work also (the PMA folds down against the web). The length shouldn't be a problem because it could come out of the hatch face first. Of course this is all dependent on that 1.3 meter square top hatch opening being available on Dragon 2. Another big hiccup is JPL itself. Jim has already pointed out that they would see this mission as competition and would be unlikely to help much less provide a rover for it.