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this article is wrong on many things. one being that the rover can drive during night. the small power output of the "nuclear battery" is not used to drive the rover. it used to recharge batteries during day and night so that the rover can operate on the batteries during the day.
NASA has almost run out of U238: http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/20... People promoting liquid thorium reactors have been pointing out that they could supply it: http://flibe-energy.com/products/
There's Pu238 in our nuclear fuel rods, we aren't allowed to reprocess spent fuel to extract it.
> The first time I heard about the Curiosity Rover nuclear battery, I was thinking this must be top notch technology. What a surprised I had when I saw it has been used for more that 40 years already.
Évariste Galois came up with mathematics in the early 1800's which only in just the past several decades had widespread applications in cryptography. Carbon electric arcs were developed right at the start of the 1800's, and not only have we been finding new applications for them ever since, we'll probably keep doing so!
Also note that the mid-90's trappings of the digital office were running at Xerox PARC in the early 1970's.
As is often said: "The future is here, it just hasn't been evenly distributed yet." There is a lot of "top-notch technology" that the general public doesn't know about yet, and may not for a decade.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rover mass is same on Earth or Mars. So acceleration costs the same. Low gravity also means less friction with the ground, making it somewhat harder to move on Mars. Climbing hills would be easier on Mars.
Isn't there also an issue of impulse though? There must be an acceleration dip compared to earth since I'm basically pushing a mini cooper on earth but only a bicycle on mars. Note: I'm a scientist so I'm embarrassingly bad at physics.
this article is wrong on many things. one being that the rover can drive during night. the small power output of the "nuclear battery" is not used to drive the rover. it used to recharge batteries during day and night so that the rover can operate on the batteries during the day.
this article is wrong on many things. one being that the rover can drive during night. the small power output of the "nuclear battery" is not used to drive the rover. it used to recharge batteries during day and night so that the rover can operate on the batteries during the day.
That's a good point... while in theory is probably could drive at night, it probably isn't a good idea to have a rover on a different planet driving around in the dark.
This concept was also used in russian lighthouses because it would be cold enough in siberia to create the delta difference needed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_gen...
This concept was also used in russian lighthouses because it would be cold enough in siberia to create the delta difference needed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_gen...
Direct link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_gen...
Many people here in the far north have extensive solar setups and live completely off-grid. Unfortunately in winter, we only get ~4 hours of sunlight, and it's a pain to sweep snow off the panels every day at ~ -30C to -40C We don't get much wind, and rivers are only liquid for ~4-5 months, so wind and hydro are not popular. I've been investigating commercial thermoelectric couplings as a source in the winter. Everyo…
This might interest you. http://www.biolitestove.com/campstove/camp-overview/features...