Comments on: Curiosity retreats from Hidden Valley https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/curiosity-retreats-from-hidden-valley/ Tue, 19 Aug 2014 11:04:11 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Competential https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/curiosity-retreats-from-hidden-valley/#comment-239668 Tue, 19 Aug 2014 11:04:11 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=30285#comment-239668 In reply to mpthompson.

Two ways I know of:

1) There is a version of Curiosity which weighs only 38% of the real thing. The wheel structure with reduced payload on them.

2) I’ve seen a crane lifting a rover to make it lighter. I think it was a planned lunar rover.

However, the lower gravity probably affect how compact the sand is. I’m a fan of a space station in LEO which by rotation simulates low gravity. Some info about it: http://www.artificial-gravity.com/

]]> By: mpthompson https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/curiosity-retreats-from-hidden-valley/#comment-238314 Mon, 18 Aug 2014 23:07:40 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=30285#comment-238314 I wonder how the folks at JPL simulate the interaction of the wheels and sand in a 1/3 gravitational situation. On Mars, the inertia of the rover is the same as on Earth which effects accelerating and decelerating along the horizontal direction. However, the vertical force pushing the wheels into the sand is only 1/3. This along with the grains of sand exerting less of a force on each making them less packed together may conspire to create a much slipperier surface than the equivalent sand would result here on Earth.

]]>