Re: Liquid Water on Mars



Geert Sassen wrote:



One of the things I don't understand is why we not get a bit more of the old Soviet mentality: stick to a proven design. The present marsrovers turn out to be very sturdy and productive and although their airbag landing is not very elegant, it has shown to get you down on the surface even in rough conditions. Then just build ten or twelve more of these rovers, same design but slightly different instruments, make them drive a bit faster (now the navigation software has been improved) and give them slightly more power to climb in and out of craters and just keep sending them out two at a time at every possible launchwindow.

The only problems the present design has is that needs lots of sunlight to make it work and needs the atmosphere to be thick enough over the landing site to let the parachute slow it down enough.
These two constrains limit it to use to near Mars' equator in lowland areas. It's only usable for around 5% of the total surface of Mars as it presently exists.
But I agree, a series of fairly standardized probes that could be sent to various parts of Mars would be great from both a budget and reliability point of view.

Pat
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