Group Design Project: Presentation

The thermal system within the rover warms it, depending on the temperatures on the selected area of study. It does this through dissipation to the internal components by strategically placed electric heaters within the rover, and through the heat rejection system in the rover. These two main functions are sustained at optimal temperatures at all times. The heat rejection system has cooling functions if the temperatures are too high. The rover has two identical onboard computers, which have been wired to sustain extreme radiation exposure and protect against power-off cycles. The computers use the VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS). Each computer has a memory of 256kB EEPROM, 2GB flash memory, and 256 MB of DRAM (Witze, 2014). Curiosity relays information through relay satellites from Mars’ orbit. It has a UHF Electra-Lite software-defined radio, designed for communication within the Mars Orbit and an X band receiver and transmitter that bridges communication with Earth. The latter is how data is relayed to Earth, and because they are higher powered than the systems on the lander, data is relayed faster.

Spirit Rover

The Spirit Rover, also referred to as MER-2 or MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover – A), was one of two rovers sent to Mars for exploration purposes as the pilot mission. It was disregarded in 2010, which is the year it last sent a transmission, after it faced harsh environmental conditions in 2009 and got stuck in soft sand, hindering its mobility and battery recharge functions. Its objectives were to conduct investigations on Mars, determining the soil and rock structure, mineral composition, geological processes, surface topography, and atmospheric conditions on the planet (Monod, 2019). The main objective was to deduce whether the planet was conducive to human and plant life. Spirit was a six-wheeled robot, powered by solar energy. The wheels each had their motor.

At night, the rover was powered lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. Spirit was equipped with an onboard computer that operated using a 20 MHz RAD6000 CPU with 256 MB of flash memory, 3 MB of EEPROM, and 128 MB of DRAM. Spirit contained a gold film and was layered with silica aerogel for insulation. Operational temperatures would be between −39 to +39 °C (−40 to 104 °F). The radioisotope heater present in the rover regulates temperatures depending on the environmental conditions. The rover was equipped with an omnidirectional low-gain antenna, which was used for relaying information at low data speeds, and a high-gain antenna, which would relay information at fast speeds (Hoffman, 2017). Both antennas communicated directly with Earth; however, the low gain antenna would also relay data to nearby space crafts on Mars’ Orbit.

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