NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover Report #14 — November 9, 2012
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A NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover team member gives an update on developments and status of the planetary exploration mission. The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered Curiosity to its target area on Mars at 1:31:45 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6, which includes the 13.8 minutes needed for confirmation of the touchdown to be radioed to Earth at the speed of light. The rover will conduct a nearly two-year prime mission to investigate whether the Gale Crater region of Mars ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life.
#NASAs #Mars #Curiosity #Rover #Report #November
NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover Report #14 — November 9, 2012
23 Comments
23 Comments
That example of yours wasn’t necessary, but thanks anyway.
Actually there is fission in an RTG. The Pu-238 is decaying into U‑234 by releasing Alpha particles(Helium), and the heat byproduct is used to generate the power. There just isn’t controlled fission, there’s no chain reaction going on, like in a nuclear reactor. It’s an unstable isotope slowly decaying over decades.
@Virakotxa: The electrical output is equivalent to 0.17 HP brand new, and down to 0.13 HP after 14 years. You’d get far, but not very quickly. Total heat output is equivalent to 2.68 HP. As dcoxen writes, it really is a fission battery (look up RTG on wikipedia), but it is not close to critical mass as in a nuclear power plant.
Are there any microbes that produce methane as a metabolic process or by dying and decaying? Living things on earth produce methane. I’m ‘curious’ why she didn’t mention that. In the mean time this is one of the ways I like seeing my taxes spent. Great eye candy.
my cat wants to go to mars. i keep telling him that it’s financially unfeasible right now, but assuring him that maybe someday, he’ll get to be the first feline on the red planet. i don’t think he understands. he’s kind of stupid.
The cameras probablely can’t find a star. P.S. it it radioactive dacy not fission
Butt-covering. They don’t want to guess wrong.
Please show more photos of Mars.
We’re not talking cellphone cameras here, people. Whichever kind, they have the energy. They have the satellites for the link! They’ve shown us on the landing they have a video-camera. Thing is no picture or footage with a clear sky or horizon ever gets posted, stars or not. It’s always blurred, cropped or straight blacked out. And all we see are 3d rendered interpretations… This last time, even less. A friggin’ description! Love the rock portraits, but It’s all too weird on the surroundings.
Ah, thanks.. It’s not that I was stressing the danger of the thing, more the energy capabilities. People get all stressed out when they hear about the power of the atom. It’s the way to go, as far as we’re are told… That thing runs on Nuclear. Face it people. It’s not your average RC car… That buggie is a National Geographic team on wheels… If they don’t show more it’s not because they can’t. Could be national security… but not technical.
Picture or it didn’t happen.
Why would somebody down-vote your comment to the point it cannot be read, and report it as spam? baffles me. I agree with all you said. I’d like to see that too.
We ARE talking cellphone cameras. 2 mpixils. And the video was way hard. And they need a long exposer time… not a priority. But it should be.
how boring
I would like to see that. I also would like to see us go back to the moon and finnish what we had set out to do.
Lets face it Vir. Who in their right mind wants something flying over their head with nuclear reactor and using it as a power source? because you know as well as I do to have the technology to be able to perform this type of action? it would be necessary to have this to be able to perform!!
Burning petrol in an internal combustion engine gives you more bang for the buck (no pun intended) — but only in the short term. You have to keep feeding the damned thing and most of the chemical energy released is wasted as heat.
Think of the tanker full of gas the average car consumes in 15 years.
Designs for a nuclear powered car go back to the 50’s. Sadly, cleaning up after a traffic accident would be… well… complicated, to say the least.
My Dream job Astronomer
Love NASA
you’re so fucking stupid
is it always the critics of nuclear power who are the ones that know nothing about it
” A fission battery ” No fission. Just the decay heat of Plutonium 238 being converted into electric current via thermocouples. Terribly inefficient, and doesn’t provide a whole lot of power, but lasts for years upon years, depending on the quantitiy of radioactive isotope. Voyager has been going for I think 35 years, and is planned to continue for another 13 years.
please remove the ringing bell sound.. why is it there?? jus anoying 😛 informative video’s though 🙂