Nasa's Curiosity Rover Grows More Powerful After 13 Years On Mars

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Happy 13th day to nan Curiosity rover, which landed connected Mars connected August 6, 2012. Ah, I retrieve erstwhile I turned 13: conscionable starting to shave, sound cracking for illustration crystal successful spring, and learning really to multitask truthful that my mini atomic reactor would past longer. Sadly, Curiosity will ne'er study to shave, but it has conscionable figured retired really to do that past bit. After each this clip successful nan particulate of different planet, nan rover is virtually getting better.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, which operates nan Curiosity mission, has pushed a caller package update to nan six-wheeled adventurer. The main intent is to amended nan lifespan of its multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), which isn't a video crippled genre, but an precocious shape of radioisotope powerfulness strategy (RPS). This is simply a miniaturized plutonium powerfulness plant, which is beautiful amazing. Trouble is, moreover plutonium runs retired eventually, and it's not for illustration Curiosity tin conscionable popular complete to nan car shed to prime immoderate much up (and swap retired its wheels while it's astatine it).

Every clip Curiosity does thing astatine all, it uses electricity. Driving nan wheels, scanning for a route, taking samples that 1 time should return to Earth, phoning location — it each takes a small juice, and recharging nan batteries intends expending plutonium. Once it's each gone, Curiosity becomes a early Martian depository piece, thing more. So making nan seven-foot-tall feline much businesslike is beautiful critical, arsenic it will widen nan life of nan MMRTG and, thus, Curiosity itself. How to do that? By doing what each 13-year-old juggling homework and societal media does: multitask. And past return much naps.

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Curiosity has a batch to do, but each of that is programmed by nan bully group backmost astatine JPL. So a day's ngo mightiness be, say, thrust complete there, return immoderate photos, upload those photos backmost to Earth, past thrust location else. Each of those steps is planned retired successful sequence, and Curiosity fulfills them 1 astatine a time. Sensible, but besides hugely inefficient.

So, crazy idea: what if Curiosity could upload nan photos during nan thrust to nan 2nd location? That reduces nan full magnitude of clip Curiosity moreover has to beryllium connected to execute nan mission, meaning little full powerfulness draw. This, critically, intends much naps, a privilege for america all.

In fact, earlier this update, nan rover would do each of these tasks for an allotted magnitude of time, sloppy of whether it accomplished nan nonsubjective early. Maybe nan thrust was a spot smoother than estimated, and it arrived a small early. The aged Curiosity would still service retired nan scheduled time. The updated Curiosity tin admit erstwhile it's done its occupation for nan time and past powerfulness down. The much powerfulness saved, nan little nan plutonium gets utilized up, nan much years Curiosity will last.

NASA has really been utilizing RTG systems since nan 1960s. The Apollo missions utilized them, and nan 2 Voyager spacecraft sailing disconnected into nan beingness are still being powered by them today. The existent type being utilized by Curiosity and its related Perseverance is "multi-mission," meaning nan aforesaid creation could beryllium utilized successful abstraction aliases successful atmosphere.

The main rule astatine activity present is that if 2 conductive elements are astatine vastly different temperatures, energy flows. Inside nan instrumentality are plutonium pellets, which make immense power erstwhile desired. Outside nan device, well, it's Mars! It's cold. You get nan acold portion for free. There's a logic this worldly is still moving successful nan void of space. That allows for 110 watts from 10.6 pounds of plutonium to complaint nan rover's batteries.

The instrumentality itself is beautiful sturdy, which it has to be, successful lawsuit there's an accident. No 1 wants a subject ngo to move into a soiled bomb. In fact, backmost successful 1968, a rocket carrying a outer pinch an RTG collapsed into nan sea. The generator was successfully recovered, intact and past reused connected a early satellite.

How agelong will Curiosity's MMRTG last? As pinch each things connected Mars, it's difficult to predict. Maybe early updates will make it moreover much efficient; possibly thing will spell horribly incorrect tomorrow. But erstwhile it first landed, NASA was only hoping nan rover would make it 2 years. It conscionable deed its 13th birthday. Here's to nan adjacent 13, buddy.