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I can give you a concrete counterexample to that. The Perserverance rover is carrying an entire experiment (MOXIE, which makes oxygen from CO2) whose only purpo
by idlewords 4y ago
I can give you a concrete counterexample to that. The Perserverance rover is carrying an entire experiment (MOXIE, which makes oxygen from CO2) whose only purpose is to serve a future human mission. NASA is encouraging more of this stuff, and it means automated Mars rovers will go to the boring sites that we need to prep rather than look at the phenomena of highest scientific interest on Mars.
That said, I'd love to hear what people who work at JPL and NASA have to say to your point.
- whatshisface 4y agoSample return missions would also be robotic.
- kiratp 4y agohttps://mars.nasa.gov/msr/ https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/ Sample return step 1 (collect samples) is already underway.
- MobiusHorizons 4y agoI think the assertion was that oxygen would be used to fuel the trip back to earth.
- tlb 4y agoOxygen production is also useful for sample return missions. The biggest flaw with the rovers is that they’re terribly slow, so they can only explore a small range around a landing site. If they could cover even 100km/day, which seems plausible on RTG or solar power, we could explore many sites.
- avar 4y agoThe limitation isn't the RTG or solar, it's that a rover moving at that speed would likely get itself stuck in the sand within a day. It happened to Spirit, and it was moving at a glacial pace, with a team of people carefully reviewing its every move.
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y agoUse helos as scouts for the rovers, then. Hmm..wait..