Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt
It's about twice the size of Spirit and has MORE POWER. Ten pounds of high grade plutonium, baby.
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With the world's best solar cells, a rover would only have maybe 100+ watts of electricity. Solar cell technology at its best is that inefficient. So Curiosity has nuclear batteries to increase power to hundreds of watts. Rovers live on that little power.
If power is that minimal for robots, then how will men (who need tens or hundreds of kilowatts) survive for a few months on Mars? They won't. Just another number that says why this world's best science is done by robots.
Unfortunately a replacement for Hubble (Webb) is in trouble. It should have already been launched in 2010. But may not launch until 2015 or 2018 due to technical problems. That assumes a Republican congress does not (after multiple attempts) successfully cut off all funds so as to protect tax cuts for the rich.
Oppurtunity is still alive and kicking up Martian dirt. The Rovers were a classic story of a good and evil twins. Everything that would go wrong happened to Spirit.