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Aren't smaller transistor sizes also more susceptible to radiation issues which means you can't really use newer processors without ever more effort in radiation hardening?
Smaller transistors also have a smaller cross-section so for the same number of transistors this somewhat cancels out.
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In general the older nodes work better for radiation and other cosmic forces. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hardening That's why they don't use the latest and greatest in the space.
They work better primarily because they had previously invested in the tooling to rad-harden them and it’s really expensive to do that again one time for each mission; cheaper to rely on already-rad-hardened designs.
Just an example: consider you were to add some extra electrical charge to the gate of a transistor (from an electron or ion beam, I don't know).
A larger transistor has a higher gate capacitance, it is therefore quite immune against a few extra charges. On smaller transistors, though, it could dramatically increase the voltage, leading to a bit error, or destroying the transistor. Capacitance in this case is proportional to the area.
Higher density also has some inherent drawbacks against particles, since a damaged part is proportionately more damaged if it is smaller.
More ancient processes are also higher-voltage, and higher-current, so they can handle a lot more noise on these signals.
One of the things I find really cool about Ingenuity is how it is in large based on consumer hardware. The main processor is a Snapdragon 801 running Linux which communicates with Perseverance using the Zigbee protocol [1]. Perseverance on the other hand uses a RAD750 from 2001! If successful I hope this can lead to more modern hardware for these kinds of missions in general. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingenui…
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As the name RAD750 indicates, that processor is designed to be radiation hardened which matters for longer missions. I doubt the Snapdragon 801 will survive as long or have as few errors but it also doesn't matter since Ingenuity isn't aimed for long term usage.
One thing that's not clear to me is what the radiation is like on mars. Mars has an atmosphere, but no magnetic field. Is it like the situation high in earth's atmosphere (like using your ipad on a commercial flight), or would it be more like on the moon with no protection?
Fun fact: This is not the first time a space program has flown on another planet. The Soviets launched weather balloons on Venus during the Venera missions [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_program#Balloon
Speaking of flight and picking the nits here — looks like Wikipedia also isn‘t completely correct here:
> It is planned to make the first powered flight on any planet beyond Earth
...arguably the first _powered_ flights were done by the sky cranes of Opportunity and Perseverance
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In general the older nodes work better for radiation and other cosmic forces. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hardening That's why they don't use the latest and greatest in the space.
Can't all of the radiation issues be mitigated with proper shielding of the electronics?
Fun fact: This is not the first time a space program has flown on another planet. The Soviets launched weather balloons on Venus during the Venera missions [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_program#Balloon
This is so cool, I didn‘t know about these yet and I‘d call myself a space buff... Speaking of flight and picking the nits here — looks like Wikipedia also isn‘t completely correct here: > It is planned to make the first powered flight on any planet beyond Earth ...arguably the first _powered_ flights were done by the sky cranes of Opportunity and Perseverance
Does anyone know why they chose to send a helicopter and not some kind of plane or glider? I would've thought that a fixed-wing aircraft would have been simpler, lighter, faster and more efficient.
How many runways do you see on Mars
Fun fact: This is not the first time a space program has flown on another planet. The Soviets launched weather balloons on Venus during the Venera missions [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_program#Balloon
This is so cool, I didn‘t know about these yet and I‘d call myself a space buff... Speaking of flight and picking the nits here — looks like Wikipedia also isn‘t completely correct here: > It is planned to make the first powered flight on any planet beyond Earth ...arguably the first _powered_ flights were done by the sky cranes of Opportunity and Perseverance
Not the Apollo 11 lunar module? In contrast to the sky cranes it actually lifted off again.