New EV on Mars

[JohnK]

NASA has put an EV on Mars, called Curiosity. Has a pretty nifty range extender too, nuclear powered. Looks like it can beat the "assisted parking" feature of Fords for autonomous maneuvering.

[focher]

NASA has put an EV on Mars, called Curiosity. Has a pretty nifty range extender too, nuclear powered. Looks like it can beat the "assisted parking" feature of Fords for autonomous maneuvering.

It seems to have some great technology and features, but the acquisition and operating costs are out of my price range. In fairness, I will be able to use this information with my wife when arguing to buy the Tesla Model X.

[gaulfinger]

Talk about extended range :-)

[fishmahn]

I'd hate to have to pay that delivery charge... :-O

Mike.

[joebert]

When the first rover hit Mars, my coworkers figured out that it had better Internet access than I did as my town didn't get cable internet or DSL for several years.

Levity aside, the NASA team did something fantastic. It was so exciting watching the landing. Congrats to all involved.

[Cord]

100 pound Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator-110 watts of 24/7 power and heat.
Uses (mickeymouse'sdog-nium) dioxide.

[QB 45]

I'd hate to have to pay that delivery charge... :-O

Yeah, no kidding!!

[WopOnTour]

100 pound Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator-110 watts of 24/7 power and heat.
Uses (mickeymouse'sdog-nium) dioxide.

Yes, it uses an RTG is its "range extender" (producing 125 watts from ~2000 watts of thermal power souced from the decay of 11lbs of Plutonium-238 Dioxide) but the Curiosity rover still uses Lithium Ion batteries (I've not been able to determine whose cell chemistry) as primary power, buffering, and energy storage element for it's power systems.
So it could be argued that an Li-Ion based EV is soon to be cruising the streets of Gale crater.

For anyone here that missed the opportunity to follow along during the Curiosity landing via JPL/NASA "live" streaming*- what an awesome experience.With all of the live control room video/audio as well as real-time telemetry from the various assets such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (a satellite that has been orbiting Mars since 2006) it was like you were a member of the team. Crazy fun.
*Live streaming- is somewhat of a misnomer as the actual events on Mars occur 13.8 minutes prior to their reporting back on Earth, the transmit time required for the radio signals to reach the JPL control room in Pasedena CA.

Below is an actual screen shot I took directly off my laptop THE INSTANT (see above*) the first two images from Curiosity became available to those in the control room and anyone else monitoring the NASA streaming channel.

Again to bear witness to this important step in future of space exploration as an active participant affected me so profoundly, I will now be monitoring Curiosity's progress over the next couple years on a daily basis.
Perhaps I'll start a Curiosity EV blog.

WopOnTour



EDIT: Here is the latest image of the Gale Crater landscape from Curiosity's high res camera taken today 8/8/12

[yoyodyn]

During one of the press conferences after the landing, someone asked that since the rover has a nuclear power source, would it still be necessary to power down at night, or could the rover operate 24/7. The answer was that the nuclear power source does not really provide enough power to run the rover, and that it only trickle charges the battery, as well as provide enough heat to keep the rover warm. (They mentioned a heating system of pipes that run through the rover) So the nightly shutdowns would still be required to allow the batteries to fully charge.

[Cord]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/MSLLaunch.pdf

The batteries, each with a capacity
of about 42 amp-hours, were made by Yardney
Technical Products, Pawcatuck, Conn.

AND for all us OLD Mac users the CPU :-)

200MHz PowerPC 750 CPU specifically hardened to withstand radiation and space flight.