NextGen Mars Rovers
Next Generation MERs for Mars?, Future Planetary Exploration Blog
Marc’s note: Van Kane, the author of the post has for several years posted interesting observations of various exploration missions. As someone not affiliated with the space program, but speaking strictly as an enthusiast, his comments are at times worth reading including this post which deals with NASA’s Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration conference this week. BTW parts of the conference are being streamed live starting at 9:00 a.m. EDT.
“Example of proposed upgrades to the basic Mars Exploration Rover design for missions to Mars in 2018 and beyond. This particular upgrade would enhance the rover with next generation instruments and add capabilities to collect and cache samples for eventual return to Earth. “
“This week NASA will hold its conference on Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration. The space agency will use this meeting to hear new ideas for exploring the Red Planet. The planetary science community responded with a wide range of ideas for both future robotic and manned missions. The best ideas presumably will be incorporated into NASA’s new Mars exploration plan for 2018 through 2033 to be released this summer.”
Wish them lots of luck too.
What weight payload do you think a dragon can land on mars?
No clue here hoping to learn.
Also is there a plus to putting a mars lander in orbit first if you used your sheild and aerobrake to orbit??? to reduce your speed to increase payload to the surface to have a simpler design than MSL
What is the difference from mars orbital velocity and the velocity of directly coming in from earth?
Is aero braking much of a plus or not? And about how much?
I think what they are trying to do is incredible and like Paul, I so do not understand why they didn’t build several with all that money spent on tooling.
And I’m wondering if the dragon approach is better or not. Anyway if you know the answers to any of my questions sure would appreciate learning any of the above.
I have suggested using a dragon with a fall away heat shield and a floor hatch to deliver a rover as big as dragons weight and shielding area could possible deliver. I would let the dragon landed then lower the vehicle I think. Is that a credible idea?
Another idea is to have wheels on a dragon once landed and use it as a mobile factory letting it be the rover.
Thanks
“What weight payload do you think a dragon can land on mars? “According to SpaceX approximately 1 ton or 1000 kilos of mass (which on Mars would have a _weight_ of about 4000 newtons).”Also is there a plus to putting a mars lander in orbit first if you used your sheild and aerobrake to orbit???”Not generally, no. It takes propellant to brake to orbit and then more to brake out of orbit. It also introduces more complexity to the control system and more places for failure. Flying right into the atmosphere is cheaper on prop and has fewer chances to fail so is generally better.”I have suggested using a dragon with a fall away heat shield and a floor hatch to deliver a rover as big as dragons weight and shielding area could possible deliver. I would let the dragon landed then lower the vehicle I think. Is that a credible idea?”It’s a credible idea in that it’s possible. The Dragon, wouldn’t be a Dragon, though, it would be a brand new vehicle. = $$$$$”Another idea is to have wheels on a dragon once landed and use it as a mobile factory letting it be the rover.”Again, possible but not efficient. You end up carrying arround a huge amount of mass that was useful only to get you to the surface. Plus all the mechanisms needed to get wheels to the ground would be a nightmare. It’s certainly possible to do if you needed to, but there’s no need, so why bother with all the hassle.
Because you are getting practice with a vehicle that could carry humans soon. You are building a tool box where the tech and practice can lead to a Mars-one mission. Thanks for your help.
Practicing stupid stuff is not productive – it wastes assets that can be used for stuff that is not stupid. You only get a shot every 26 months, you don’t want to waste them for experience. We’ve been landing stuff on Mars for a while now, we don’t need to crash stuff on Mars to build a toolbox that already exists. You can test Mars EDL technology in Earth’s upper atmosphere and get a relevant test. Predicition – as it is now, Dragon will never land on Mars – it will require extra decelerator technology.
Can the new falcon 1.1 deliver a dragon to mars with a MER rover in it??? Cut a door in the side abs roll it off.
Or do we need a falcon heavy?
We NEED practice landing man capable landers on Mars!!!!
So we can help do Mars-One as soon as possible.
Get humans on Mars by 2023 and hire them to do rover science.
http://mars-one.com/en/
If we do a MER rover again.
Why would we want to deliver it on a bouncing system??? We wouldn’t.
Don’t we Need to learn to land dragons on Mars so we can be ready for the next step???
Mar-One???
Trying to fly dragon to mars and it crashing as a test would be progress because they are building a team and the tech/lessons learned will not be wasted.
We need to support the Mars-One model right away in my mind and start designing for it and quite fooling around!!!!
I’m looking at cars all around me and thinking with lessons learned from MER and lessons soon to be learned from MSL when it safely lands, that we can’t design a mars rover platform that’s cheap reusable and sustainable?? Of course we can!
I just don’t get it I guess !!!!!
Joe world citizen