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So, I don't get it. There are obvious issues here: Angular ribs cause stress points. Good CAD software should tell you this. Some metals are able to flex a sm

by tropo 10y ago

So, I don't get it. There are obvious issues here: Angular ribs cause stress points. Good CAD software should tell you this. Some metals are able to flex a small amount repeatedly, forever, without cracks. For other metals, "small" is just zero. Any flexing will eventually create cracks. Aluminum is a bad metal. Titanium is a good metal. Steel varies; unfortunately the good types tend to corrode. You have aluminum over titanium. Putting dissimilar metals in contact encourages corrosion. Mars is known to contain perchlorate salts. This is horrible for corrosion. Note that corrosion encourages crack propagation. Oh, and Mars has other stuff to not mix with aluminum: iron oxide and chlorides.

anotheryou 10y ago
They didn't test against pointy embedded rocks, because there where few of those where the small rovers had been. The main problem was the angle of the front and legs: if you drag a rolling suitcase up a curb it's all good, but when you try to push it up, you can generate forces much higher than the weight of the suitecase. Same happened to the rover.