Will Curiosity be able to leave gale crater?

[AutoBoof]

Will Curiosity be able to leave gale crater? Since there are no roads on mars, do the rover operators know of a way to drive Curiosity out of the crater? Do they have any plans to do so?

-Chris

[Zvezdichko]

As far as I know, no... Not at least during the first 5 years of operations. Curiosity will be studying the mountain in the crater, and it's huge and there are a lot of areas to be surveyed...

If some day the rover decides to leave the mountain, it will be painfully slow to exit the crater and it will take more years. Curiosity is still very slow on the surface.

Never say never, but I guess that the answer is close to never at least

[schlaugh]

The RTG is expected to last one Mars year but anything after that is gravy. So while it may be physically possible the MSL mission may not have enough time. Or budget.

From the NASA MSL site:

This power source gives the mission an operating lifespan on Mars' surface of a full martian year (687 Earth days) or more...

[AutoBoof]

They kept the other rovers going long after mission's initial end date.. Why wouldnt they do the same with this one?

I have high hopes that this one will last a long time, but since it is powered by a nuclear source which is not renewable. What is the Max it can possibly last?

[schlaugh]

They kept the other rovers going long after mission's initial end date.. Why wouldnt they do the same with this one?

Opportunity and Spirit are / were powered by solar cells. http://www.worldculturepictorial.com...eepest_end.jpg
Curiosity is powered by the RTG. And when it dies, it dies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cu...n_GPHS-RTG.jpg

In any event budget may be the most limiting factor. I have been (pleasantly) surprised that NASA kept funding the MER program.

[djellison]

The science is in the central mound. They wont be going the other way very far. Leaving the crater would mean leaving the science behind.

So - could it? Yes. Will it? No.

[R.A.F.]

Will Curiosity be able to leave gale crater?

Why would mission scientists "want" to leave Gale crater? Everything Curiosity came to study is in Gale.

[Grashtel]

The RTG is expected to last one Mars year but anything after that is gravy. So while it may be physically possible the MSL mission may not have enough time. Or budget.

After all its not like a certain other Mars rover is eight (Earth) years into its 90 Sol mission and going strong is it?

I suspect that the estimates for Curiosity's lifespan are decidedly on the conservative side and while it may not managed to exceed them as well as the MERs did due to the hard limit of its RTG but I'm betting that she has got a lot more than just one Martian year in it

[schlaugh]

True. Some of the interweb information out there implies the potential for a 14-year lifespan. The RTGs on the Vikings ran for several years (4 and 6 IIRC) before dying. I'd love for Curiosity to be roaming around until I retire...but I'm not betting on it.

[mutleyeng]

I think so far as the actual energy source, it could last at least 14 yrs (ive heard that figure mentioned too, maybe even considerably longer), but lifespan is not just about the available energy, its about the system that delivers it, the batteries, the cooling.
so far as leaving the crater....well, isnt it like at least 40 miles from mnt sharp to the rim?
talking of batteries, does anyone know what they use?

[Romanus]

I know that late in Viking 1's career, there were plans to keep it operational for up to 20 years; it wasn't done in by power, but by a faulty command. Then again, Viking didn't drive...but we'll see.

I, too, think the lifetime estimates are necessarily conservative; that said, I think it's extremely unlikely they'll ever leave Gale. They could study quite a bit of other things without leaving; for instance, the crater straddles the dichotomy between the northern and southern hemispheres, with the northern edge structurally representing one, and the southern edge...you get the picture. As in the case of Opportunity's "blueberries", I think Curiosity will end up answering questions we haven't had the foresight to ask yet, which will require yet more time "in-crater".

[ToSeek]

The plutonium in the RTG has a half-life of 88 years, so I don't think the RTG is a limiting factor. (Note that the 35-year-old Voyagers are RTG-powered.) Frankly, I think it's possible that Curiosity might outlive me - I'm probably not going to last another 35 years.

[sts60]

The generator on MSL is the not the venerable GPHS-RTG; it's the MMRTG, making its first flight. It has a 14-year design life, but is also the first space RTG to operate in a planetary atmosphere. One can't say ultimately how long it will last, but the main factors affecting its life are the radiodecay of the heat source (as already mentioned), degradation of the thermoelectrics, and infiltration of the Martian atmosphere into the sealed heat source. But it should charge the batteries a good long time.

[mutleyeng]

k, i done a bit of research, thought id share what i found about the battery situation
Curiosity is using lithium ion batteries made by Yardney Electric.
The MER rovers were equipped with 2x 8 cell 10 Ah batteries (parallel 24v).
Only unverified figures i could find for Curiosity was that it may have 80 ah battery(pack).

http://www.yardney.com/Documents/pap...on%20Cells.pdf

[Doodler]

The plutonium in the RTG has a half-life of 88 years, so I don't think the RTG is a limiting factor. (Note that the 35-year-old Voyagers are RTG-powered.) Frankly, I think it's possible that Curiosity might outlive me - I'm probably not going to last another 35 years.

The sensors may work, but how much power is required to move it? That's one advantage the Voyagers have, they don't use their own power to move.

[Trebuchet]

The sensors may work, but how much power is required to move it? That's one advantage the Voyagers have, they don't use their own power to move.

I wouldn't be surprised if the batteries were a bigger limiting factor than the RTG. I think (and would be happy to be corrected) that the RTG charges the batteries, which are then used for operations. That makes sense, the RTG provides a constant power level, batteries then send it out as needed. Pretty much all batteries have a limit in the number of charge cycles they can survive.

[djellison]

I think (and would be happy to be corrected) that the RTG charges the batteries, which are then used for operations. .

Bingo. Curiosity's peak power consumption is >> the RTG's output. Thus - the RTG charges the battery and the battery drives the rover.

[mutleyeng]

greater by some considerable margin i would guess.
If its not a secrete, id love to know what its peak consumption is ..some of those instuments probably use a lot of juice

[djellison]

It takes 600Whrs just to heat the mobility system to be ready to drive, for example.

[publiusr]

I wonder if there will ever be a dry lubrication system available. The Nat'l Geo special showed quite a mess.

[MaDeR]

Wy you would want to leave Gale Crater in first place?...