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I am aware of the Dawn orbiter. My reasoning for sending a rover is most likely you will be able to collect more details and information. With satellite all you
by akshayB 11y ago
I am aware of the Dawn orbiter. My reasoning for sending a rover is most likely you will be able to collect more details and information. With satellite all you get is high resolution images but if you have a rover you can perform hand on tests on the surface, try drilling and do whatever you are looking to do.
- maxxxxx 11y agoNot sure but wouldn't a rover be difficult to land with the low gravity?
- rwmj 11y agoIndeed - surface gravity of 0.029 g and escape velocity of 510 m/s (about 1000 mph) according to wikipedia.
- kylek 11y ago67p was arguably much harder to land on than this would be.
- Symmetry 11y agoEasier, I would think. The gravity is low enough that you don't need a big rocket to land but high enough that you don't have to worry about bouncing off.
- maxxxxx 11y agoI was thinking about the way they slam the mars rovers into the ground with airbags. That certainly wouldn't work or the rover would bounce around for a long time. But I guess there are other ways. It would certainly be interesting to see what NASA comes up with.
- lmm 11y agoLow gravity makes it easier. No atmosphere means you have to use active deceleration (rockets) rather than parachutes, but it's not going to be worse than Curiosity's "skycrane".
- gus_massa 11y agoCeres is big, so the rover can travel only a small distance. Where are the interesting point to visit? Where is the safe terrain to travel? You need a preliminary photograph mission. Also, the distance from Ceres to the Sun is 1.8 times the distance from Mars to the Sun, so you the solar panels need to be 3 times bigger. (It has almost no atmosphere, so you'll get a bit more light. It has a lower gravity, I suppose it helps to improve the millage, but I'm not sure if the rover will jump too much.)
- Retric 11y agoRTG is a much better solution than solar as Ceres is cold making waste heat useful and increasing RTG efficency somewhat. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_... Long term people could use solar, but nuclear has a lot of advantages is very cold locations.
- sliverstorm 11y agoRTG's are politically tough, people freak out about launching fissile material in a rocket, and for a couple years NASA was in a pinch because we had exhausted remaining plutonium stockpiles (and there were no plans to produce more)