Mars Rovers Should Have Landing TV Cameras (very important)

It would be a good investment. We have to see how and where they land.
We just can't say something blacked out on landings.If something goes
wrong we have to have a chance to "see" why. We might see them land
against the side of a mountain. See them fall into sand and dust and get
covered,and trapped. Fall into a pool of muddy water(dought it) What
I'm saying we have to see the last 30 miles going down. That would be
nice. Bert PS I hope they do????.

Bert posted:

It would be a good investment. We have to see how and where they land.
We just can't say something blacked out on landings.

The Mars Exploration Rovers *do* have a camera to take a picture of where they
are about to land.
--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

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Hi David Is the camera running all the way down? I don't mean once it
has landed. What I'm worried about is a bad landing because of say
hitting a large rock,or sinking into the fine sand and dust by landing
in the walls of a crater. Mars has craters just about covering half its
surface. Spending all that time,energy and money to get there I hope by
seeing a failed probe that won't leave us in the dark and an extra TV
camera is small, light,and cheap. Could be worth its weight in
knowledge (gold) Bert.

Bert posted:
Is the camera running all the way down? I don't mean once it
has landed. What I'm worried about is a bad landing because of say
hitting a large rock,or sinking into the fine sand and dust by landing
in the walls of a crater.

I don't know what its imaging schedule is, but it is part of a system to avoid
excessive horizontal motion in the lander, probably to keep it from bouncing
too much on landing. It is due to image the ground before touchdown, but I
don't know when the images will be released.

--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

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Bert:

Unfortunately I don't believe it would be possible, since the method
they'll be using will cover the rovers in "baloons" to alow them to
land and bounce on the surface, until they've reached level ground. So
if a camera was in the works, which I am not certain, it would more
than likely be obscured by said ballons until they're deflated. Which
will not happen until the rovers have come to a full stop.


Bert posted:
Is the camera running all the way down? I don't mean once it
has landed. What I'm worried about is a bad landing because of say
hitting a large rock,or sinking into the fine sand and dust by landing
in the walls of a crater.

I don't know what its imaging schedule is, but it is part of a system to avoid
excessive horizontal motion in the lander, probably to keep it from bouncing
too much on landing. It is due to image the ground before touchdown, but I
don't know when the images will be released.

Don What you posted would make it difficult,but its last part of its
descent is slowed down by parachutes,and that keeps the bottom balloons
facing the surface. I don't think this is all that hard to do,and I
would hope I could not be the only one that thought of it. It should
also have a radar beeper,and this could keep track of its falling speed.
I just don't want these probes to have bad landings and not have any
idea what happened. Bert

Well one thing Mars has is a slower rate of acceleration for falling
objects. Less speed less force of impact. Not sure I like the bouncing
on landing,it would work better if the bags(balloons) came in at angle.
Hope the bags don't get in the way of the rover's wheels? A nice
experiment would have the lander release an orange hydrogen toy balloon
about 25 inches in diameter. It would be fun to watch,as well as bring
scientific. Bert

On Mon, 1 Sep 2003 08:50:43 -0400 (EDT),
(G=EMC^2 Glazier) wrote:

Don What you posted would make it difficult,but its last part of its
descent is slowed down by parachutes,and that keeps the bottom balloons
facing the surface. I don't think this is all that hard to do,and I
would hope I could not be the only one that thought of it. It should
also have a radar beeper,and this could keep track of its falling speed.
I just don't want these probes to have bad landings and not have any
idea what happened. Bert


its completely surronded by balloons. landing is whever the
contraption bounces to...
these are not landers in the sense of the Viking probes

Well since we had a good landing on Mars years ago. Why don't we stick
to doing it the proven way? Bert

Bert posted:

Well since we had a good landing on Mars years ago. Why don't we stick
to doing it the proven way?

We *are* doing it the "proven" way. The two MER landers both use a landing
system similar to that first demonstrated successfully on the Pathfinder probe.
--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

**********************************************
* Attend the 10th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY *
* July 27-Aug. 1st, 2003, Merritt Reservoir *
* http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org *
**********************************************