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Yeah I was thinking of landing it without the cables, inside a protective box and then opening the box once all the dust and debris has settled or blown away. Y
by jsmcgd 14y ago
Yeah I was thinking of landing it without the cables, inside a protective box and then opening the box once all the dust and debris has settled or blown away. You wouldn't need any airbags as the current system is able to achieve a descent of only 1.5mph, meaning it could be placed gently on the surface.
- lmm 14y agoRight, but even after the dust has blown away your rocket downdraft has basically dug a pit that your rover is now at the bottom of.
- HeyLaughingBoy 14y agoYou also need to consider that the landing may be successful but the vehicle's drive system may be rendered inoperable for any number of reasons. In that case, you'd want the surrounding ground to be as undisturbed/uncontaminated as possible so you could still do some science in that location without being able to move around.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoThere would be some value, possibly even more value in studying the Marian subsurface a bit...
- HeyLaughingBoy 14y agoRefer to what I said about the thrusters contaminating the soil. There are better ways of looking underground if that's your intent.