Here comes the seventh Fan Friday. You ask and we reply. If you want to take a look at the previous questions go to our blog.
This week we chose five questions with focus on technology.
Tech "Does ITAR handicaps you?"
Yes, yes and oh god yes. Thanks to ITAR the United States is an remote island in a sea of new space industry. Packages are collecting dust for ages at customs and what our team mates in the U.S. can do in the hardware department is severely limited. The restrictions don't just apply for aerospace components, entertainment technology is affected as well. If you ever thought "huh playstation move should be better than this" ITAR is why.
Tech "Those wheels look so tiny. Are they big enough?"
Currently the wheel diameter is 10cm. Compare that to the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunitiy's 25cm and you can really see the difference. Field testing and drive developments forced us to rethink them. Expect an updates version of the wheels soon. Nobody ever said this wasn't a learning experience.
Social “Are you still looking for people to help you?”
Yes we're always looking for scientists and engineers bold enough to take on an a mission to the moon. Apollo had more than 35.000 engineers we just got a team of 70. Though technology has advanced we still need a few more hands to get Asimov and Jules on the moon.
Tech "How much bandwith do you need to transfer the HD Images back to earth?"
As there is no requirement to transmit real time HD video material the bandwidth can vary greatly from 2 Kbp/s to 10Mbp/s or whatever your communication subsystem permits. With regards to the rules, it is required to transmit PAL "near real time" video back to earth which would require about 1- 2 Mbp/s depending on compression algorithms and wether you are pre processing the material on the rover or on the ground.
Tech "Does the Rover has a batterie?"
In short: No. But it got a cache like the ones being used in the flash light of your camera to accommodate for temporary increased power requirements. Batteries tend to have a pretty bad energy dense, meaning you end with a lot of weight for not much energy being stored. This plus the fact that most batteries will fail during the lunar night makes them not very attractive rover components.
That's it for FanFriday this week. If you have a question for us and want them answered from a genuine Part-Time Scientists send us your questions to q@part-time-scientists.com
One more thing...
We recently did some testing of our R0 Rover mockup and it was of great fun! Go to youtube and watch the movie.
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