Next Mars Rover Launch Delayed | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-04.01.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.16.24

Airborne-FlightTraining-04.17.24 Airborne-Unlimited-04.11.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.12.24

Join Us At 0900ET, Friday, 4/10, for the LIVE Morning Brief.
Watch It LIVE at
www.airborne-live.net

Thu, Apr 17, 2003

Next Mars Rover Launch Delayed

'Guillotine' Could Short Boards

'In case of trouble, cut wires.' That's the mandate of a little 'guillotine-like' device that's built into the two Mars Rovers, that are scheduled to launch this Spring and Summer. The problem with guillotines is... they can cut things.

In the case of the Rovers, there is an obscure failure mode in which the blades could short out surrounding circuitry, effectively blowing the brains out of the expensive little vehicles as they approach the Red Planet's surface, with expected (catastrophically negative) results.

NASA is taking both Rovers apart to correct the problem; that R&R will delay the first Rover's launch a bit more than a week. The new launch date can be no earlier than June 8. (The second machine's launch, scheduled for the June 25~July 15 window, is unaffected.)

The last two Mars missions, in 1999, didn't work well: one was doomed by a premature shutdown of the retrorockets on landing; the other's calculations were done in both metric and English units -- and the overseers didn't catch the mixup until... poof happened.

FMI: www.nasa.gov

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.15.24)

Aero Linx: International Flying Farmers IFF is a not-for-profit organization started in 1944 by farmers who were also private pilots. We have members all across the United States a>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: 'No Other Options' -- The Israeli Air Force's Danny Shapira

From 2017 (YouTube Version): Remembrances Of An Israeli Air Force Test Pilot Early in 2016, ANN contributor Maxine Scheer traveled to Israel, where she had the opportunity to sit d>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (04.15.24)

"We renegotiated what our debt restructuring is on a lot of our debts, mostly with the family. Those debts are going to be converted into equity..." Source: Excerpts from a short v>[...]

Airborne 04.16.24: RV Update, Affordable Flying Expo, Diamond Lil

Also: B-29 Superfortress Reunion, FAA Wants Controllers, Spirit Airlines Pulls Back, Gogo Galileo Van's Aircraft posted a short video recapping the goings-on around their reorganiz>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (04.16.24): Chart Supplement US

Chart Supplement US A flight information publication designed for use with appropriate IFR or VFR charts which contains data on all airports, seaplane bases, and heliports open to >[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2024 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC