Mars Rover tire tracks

Would anyone care to speculate as to how long will the rover tracks will last in
the Martian sand? Are they likely to be erased by the first sand storm? Or
might they last for hundreds of years?

--
Tony Sivori

Tony Sivori wrote:

Would anyone care to speculate as to how long will the rover tracks will
last in the Martian sand? Are they likely to be erased by the first sand
storm? Or might they last for hundreds of years?


what about the poor rover? Will it blown away like dorothy in the first
dust storm to come along?

"kegwasher" wrote in message
...
Tony Sivori wrote:

Would anyone care to speculate as to how long will the rover tracks will
last in the Martian sand? Are they likely to be erased by the first sand
storm? Or might they last for hundreds of years?


what about the poor rover? Will it blown away like dorothy in the first
dust storm to come along?

Can it be parked in a crevice for possible future retrieval?

kegwasher wrote:
Tony Sivori wrote:
Would anyone care to speculate as to how long will the rover tracks
will last in the Martian sand? Are they likely to be erased by the
first sand storm? Or might they last for hundreds of years?


what about the poor rover? Will it blown away like dorothy in the first
dust storm to come along?

I have read that the Martian wind is so thin that it cannot pick up
anything much larger than a grain of sand.

--
Tony Sivori

"Bootstrap Bill" wrote in message
...

"kegwasher" wrote in message
...
Tony Sivori wrote:

Would anyone care to speculate as to how long will the rover tracks
will
last in the Martian sand? Are they likely to be erased by the first
sand
storm? Or might they last for hundreds of years?


what about the poor rover? Will it blown away like dorothy in the first
dust storm to come along?

Can it be parked in a crevice for possible future retrieval?



I'd have programmed it to fold up and drop to the ground when it got to the
point that it was no longer useful. Keep it low and hide the more delicate
parts from the sandblasting wind and it'd last for a hundred years or so. If
for no other reason than it'd make a great museum piece when we finally do
get to Mars.

Two questions:

1: What is the second mast for? The one with the circle of metal at the top,
that is.

2: Why didn't NASA put a device for measuring wind speed on the rovers?
Surely it wouldn't have cost that much either monetarily or in weight.

Doc

--
And if you wish to avoid crushing social embarrassment, it's red wine
with dwarf, white with fetus.

Semolina Pilchard

"kegwasher" wrote in message
...
Tony Sivori wrote:

Would anyone care to speculate as to how long will the rover tracks will
last in the Martian sand? Are they likely to be erased by the first sand
storm? Or might they last for hundreds of years?


what about the poor rover? Will it blown away like dorothy in the first
dust storm to come along?

I think it's heavy enough that it probably wouldn't go very far.

Doc

--
And if you wish to avoid crushing social embarrassment, it's red wine
with dwarf, white with fetus.

Semolina Pilchard

Tony Sivori wrote:

kegwasher wrote:
Tony Sivori wrote:
Would anyone care to speculate as to how long will the rover tracks
will last in the Martian sand? Are they likely to be erased by the
first sand storm? Or might they last for hundreds of years?


what about the poor rover? Will it blown away like dorothy in the first
dust storm to come along?

I have read that the Martian wind is so thin that it cannot pick up
anything much larger than a grain of sand.



From the last pdf below it would appear that the wind speed varies from a
norm of 2 to 14mph with up to 50mph winds recorded. The first pdf gives
the wind velocity required to pick up sand under those conditions. Which
is roughly 4.5m/s. So the sand would only be picked up on a relatively
windy day. Doesn't sound like the tracks or rovers have much to worry
about.



http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2002/pdf/2022.pdf


http://helios.ecn.purdue.edu/~tatjan...2/Report-7.pdf

On Fri, 6 Feb 2004, drdoody wrote:



"kegwasher" wrote in message
...
Tony Sivori wrote:

Would anyone care to speculate as to how long will the rover tracks will
last in the Martian sand? Are they likely to be erased by the first sand
storm? Or might they last for hundreds of years?


what about the poor rover? Will it blown away like dorothy in the first
dust storm to come along?

I think it's heavy enough that it probably wouldn't go very far.

Atmospheric density on Mars is only 1% that of Earths. A wind of 100 miles
per hour on Mars would only at worst feel like a 10 mph wind here on
Earth. So, knocking over a 385 lb rover is not likely to occur. Eventually
the rovers will be covered in a layer of fine dust not unlike what you see
covering the martian rocks such as Adirondack where Spirit is currently
parked and doing science.
-Mike

On Fri, 6 Feb 2004, drdoody wrote:

Two questions:

1: What is the second mast for? The one with the circle of metal at the top,
that is.

The smaller, silver colored mast is the low gain antenna.

For what is what on the rovers go to the JPL websites, which have tons of
information on all of that stuff.

"http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

for the mission presskit:

"http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/merlandings.pdf"

And the NASA MER site itself:

"http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html"



2: Why didn't NASA put a device for measuring wind speed on the rovers?
Surely it wouldn't have cost that much either monetarily or in weight.

For what purpose would you want to measure the wind speeds? How much
volume would such a thing take up on an already tightly packaged vehicle?
-Mike

Mike Dicenso wrote:
On Fri, 6 Feb 2004, drdoody wrote:

2: Why didn't NASA put a device for measuring wind speed on the rovers?
Surely it wouldn't have cost that much either monetarily or in weight.

For what purpose would you want to measure the wind speeds?

The wind is part of the weather, and we need to know about the weather
before humans go to Mars.

How much volume would such a thing take up on an already tightly
packaged vehicle?

Ah, whether it was necessary for wind speed measurement to be a part of
the current rovers is another question.

--
Tony Sivori