curiosity rover lifespan

Why are we sending that rover to Mars with only enough energy for one season? How much weight is the radioactive fuel versus the instruments? When I heard it was nuclear powered I imagined it operating for many years.

Can they operate longer in a degraded mode? Maybe drive around and snap pictures without using the instruments?

reply to post by cloudyday

You are wrong about this one. It has fuel enough for minimum of 14 years, so it should last for as long as the rover lasts.

Curiosity's power source will use the latest RTG generation built by Boeing, called the "Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator" or MMRTG.[32] Based on classical RTG technology, it represents a more flexible and compact development step,[32] and is designed to produce 125 watts of electrical power at the start of the mission and 100 watts after its minimum lifetime of 14 years.[33][34] The MSL will generate 2.5 kilowatt hours per day compared to the Mars Exploration Rovers which can generate about 0.6 kilowatt hours per day.

In reality it will probably last for decades if rover somehow managed to survive that long.

Survivability of Curiosity should be greater than rovers of the past since the heat produced by the plutonium decay is piped throughout all of the exposed components of the rover and it's electronics. It wont be limited to equatorial placement where sunlight is most direct for solar panel power, and it will be able to operate in more scientifically interesting crevasses and depressions. All of the rovers used some radioisotope power and heating but Curiosity will use that power exclusively. When Curiosity is on the move it will likely require the capacity of its power source, it is 2,000 pounds (or 760 pounds on Mars), so the scientific components and communications will likely only operate when the rover is stationary.

10.6 pounds of plutonium and a 94 pound Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. Plutonium-238 has a half life of near 88 years and the US does not produce the isotope it's all purchased from Russia, it decays to uranium-234 and eventually to lead.

Originally posted by cloudyday
Why are we sending that rover to Mars with only enough energy for one season? How much weight is the radioactive fuel versus the instruments? When I heard it was nuclear powered I imagined it operating for many years.

Can they operate longer in a degraded mode? Maybe drive around and snap pictures without using the instruments?

I noticed you didn't provide a source. Where are you getting your information?

www.nasa.gov...

The mission plan is to operate Curiosity on Mars for two years.

It's advisable to under-promise, and over-deliver. People seem to be more impressed with this than the opposite. One of the Star Trek movies pokes fun at this when Scotty admonishes a younger Chief engineer and says "You didn't tell the captain how long it was really going to take to fix did you?" and then explains how he tells the captain twice the time it really takes so he can look like a miracle worker.

My point is that I suspect they have high hopes the craft will last much longer than the stated 2 years. The previous rovers Spirit and Opportunity also exceeded their pre-defined mission life.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


He got his info at the JPL mission links. I read the same info. The NASA home site doesn't go into very much detail as the JPL site does.

Mars Science Laboratory

Originally posted by Illustronic
reply to post by Arbitrageur

 

He got his info at the JPL mission links. I read the same info.

You read at that link it only could operate for one season as the OP claimed? I am not finding that. Do you have a more direct link to that?

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Some PDFs here. Power source fact sheets.

Did you know it was originally planed to shoot samples taken back to earth at one point in time?

Originally posted by Illustronic
reply to post by Arbitrageur

 

Some PDFs here. Power source fact sheets.

That confirms juleol's claim of 14 years and not the OP's claim of one season. So I still don't know where the one season came from.

No I didn't know they had planned to send samples back to Earth! That would make the mission significantly more complex!

That's a relief. I don't know where I read about one martian year lifespan on the power but I must have misunderstood what I read.

Originally posted by cloudyday
That's a relief. I don't know where I read about one martian year lifespan on the power but I must have misunderstood what I read.

The source I cited stated a mission life of two earth years. Since 1.88 Earth years equals a martian year, with a little rounding, the mission life of the rover is about one martian year (1.06 to be more accurate). But the power source should last much longer and hopefully, so will the rover.

The NASA mission link clearly states one Martian year nearly 2 earth years and we all know that's an extremely conservative estimate. But the plan is to satisfy the objectives of the mission in that time and use discoveries made to direct the mission beyond the Martian year, to what is anybody's guess. Like the original Spirit mission was something like 90 days or some ridiculously low number it went on for over 3 years, I think Opportunity is still kicking.

One thing we do know for sure is that New Horizons is just going to fly by Pluto with no attempts to orbit, and shoot out of the solar system and I haven't a clue as to how long NASA could be in contact with the spacecraft.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

Originally posted by cloudyday
Why are we sending that rover to Mars with only enough energy for one season? How much weight is the radioactive fuel versus the instruments? When I heard it was nuclear powered I imagined it operating for many years.

Can they operate longer in a degraded mode? Maybe drive around and snap pictures without using the instruments?

I noticed you didn't provide a source. Where are you getting your information?

www.nasa.gov...

The mission plan is to operate Curiosity on Mars for two years.

It's advisable to under-promise, and over-deliver. People seem to be more impressed with this than the opposite. One of the Star Trek movies pokes fun at this when Scotty admonishes a younger Chief engineer and says "You didn't tell the captain how long it was really going to take to fix did you?" and then explains how he tells the captain twice the time it really takes so he can look like a miracle worker.

My point is that I suspect they have high hopes the craft will last much longer than the stated 2 years. The previous rovers Spirit and Opportunity also exceeded their pre-defined mission life.

They also state that it's the current mission plan. So that's just what they have planned out so far for this mission. This is exciting because that means they have 2 years so far of what they want to do there, and then will continue on and expand as mission and opportunities allow.

Edit: Oops, I see you already went over that a bit, but doesn't hurt restating.

Personally I want to see Dawn hurry up and leave Vesta because I wanna see Ceres.