Tires on the ground ...

OK, Here is the picture. It is simplified, but I will expand if everyone thinks it has merit.



I own a 35 square inch flat solar panel somewhere in my classroom. I am going to measure its voltage and current output and then design an energy budget around it. I realize this panel is low tech compared with the availability of better products. I figure on using the low end of each estimate so as to come up with a reasonable margin of error. Tom, could you advise us on the physics of the martian surface from a mathematical standpoint such as gravitation acceleration. I am trying to get a handle on how the coefficient of friction will vary on Mars. With previous rovers, the weight is enough to provide traction, I am concerned that the vehicles we are talking about will be too light to get a grip on the surface. A comparison of various propulsions of these micro rovers would be incomplete in my opinion without engineering the device for the ground conditions. Obvious next steps might include appropriate temperature, pressure (or lack thereof), and radiation stability in the martian environment. Let me know what you think, thanks, Mark

P.S. I will make sure the next picture post looks a little better, its my first try.

Mark

The flat design allows the micro rover to flip over and maintain driveability. I favored a wide flat design to maximize solar capture but may have to tradeoff manuverability and ground clearance. I think a sphere design would have trouble being powered by solar panels because the sphere would get dirty and become less translucent with time. I am not sure how to keep the flat design clean either but it should not come into direct conflict with the surface like the sphere would.

Could we collectively create a list of what features the rover should have and maybe make a spreadsheet of how each feature may vary across different models?

Also, what about a gatling gun that shoots sensor probes at high velocity to cover large areas with sensors? That is my wild kook thought Larry

mark

This looks like it could be of interest. www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3380

A flexible light weight solar cell. If we find a nice origami pattern we could build the body out of a flat sheet.

Tom, do you know how much heat spacecraft entering the Martian atmosphere encounter? I imagine it is low, but did not want to assume.

Also, what about Tesla electrical broadcasting for the rovers? Essentially, one could plant tesla coils connected to encased nuclear reactors or hydrogen cell, large solar panels etc and then broadcast electricity to the rover drones?

Larry and everyone, I have chosen to just throw in brainstorming right now, that is why I am posting short bursts. I was out driving and thought of the old lightbulb by the tesla coil demonstration and thought hmmmm why not?

Mark

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by MarkVitrone</i>
<br />Tom, do you know how much heat spacecraft entering the Martian atmosphere encounter?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">In an atmosphere with 1% of the density of Earth's, an object of a given size and speed can go 100 times further before burning up or exploding. -|Tom|-