Drilling with Curiosity
Table of Contents

Remotely operating a rover on another planet so that it can gather and analyze samples requires extensive planning, failure work-arounds, and compromise.
Source: americanscientist.org

Remotely operating a rover on another planet so that it can gather and analyze samples requires extensive planning, failure work-arounds, and compromise.
Source: americanscientist.org
Key technologies include a compact pre-cooler heat-exchanger that can take an incoming airstream of over 1,000C and cool it to -150C in less than 1/100th of a second. This would permit Sabre to use oxygen direct from the atmosphere for combustion instead of carrying it in a tank with the weight penalty that implies.
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On the scarred terrain of Arabia Terra, a region on Mars that serves as the setting for The Martian, lies a mysterious pockmark known as Ismenia Patera. New imagery released by the European Space Agency (ESA) on Thursday reveals dimensions of this feature that help contextualize its geological evolution (though its origins remain unresolved).
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