The tech behind the Mars Curiosity rover

[jes]

The tech behind the Mars Curiosity rover

Let’s take a look at the technology powering NASA’s robotic explorer

 

[chrisc]

Stunning images from Mars. Thanks for a really interesting article

 

[BANG_Mutha]

Ok, so why is the technology inside the Curiosity so outdated? I can understand the slow transfer rate but why the outdated hardware? My phone has more advanced hardware and my phone is also almost 2 years old now.

 

[Randux]

O man check out those rims

 

[Niren_M]

wow....did not know it was that huge, same size as my Hilux.

 

[roskii]

Ok, so why is the technology inside the Curiosity so outdated? I can understand the slow transfer rate but why the outdated hardware? My phone has more advanced hardware and my phone is also almost 2 years old now.

Curiousity had a development phase of +-10 years. They couldn't replace certain tech due to initial design parameters.

 

[Sinbad]

O man check out those rims

Curiosity can travel up to speeds of 90 meters per hour (0.09km/h), but average speed is around 0.03km/h.

Should have put one times freeflow and induction kit...

 

[Beam]

Interesting, these are the first actual pictures of Curiosity in build that I've seen - at last I can at least partially believe that it actually exists!

 

[Sapphiron]

Curiosity features two identical on-board computers called Rover Compute Element (RCE).

The computers are radiation-hardened, allowing them to survive the extreme radiation from space.

Each computer’s memory includes 256kB of EEPROM, 256MB of DRAM, and 2GB of flash memory.

So that's where my 2 Rassberry Pi's on backorder went.

 

[WaxLyrical]

Should have put one times freeflow and induction kit...

all that money on a donkey

I think NASA can extract more data from a turd


seriously there's nothing on mars.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

all that money on a donkey

I think NASA can extract more data from a turd


seriously there's nothing on mars.

 

[ebendl]

Remember, the flash memory and CMOS chips isn't your run of the mill Sandisk SD Micro cards. These things have to handle huge amount of radiation and frikken space travel.

Rather go with less and make sure it is usable than arrive with 2 TB of flash yet you can't access anything.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Remember, the flash memory and CMOS chips isn't your run of the mill Sandisk SD Micro cards. These things have to handle huge amount of radiation and frikken space travel.

Rather go with less and make sure it is usable than arrive with 2 TB of flash yet you can't access anything.

Quality not quantity

 

[Bern]

all that money on a donkey

I think NASA can extract more data from a turd


seriously there's nothing on mars.

this..

What kinda hurts is the slowest speed via the orbiters is the same speed the DoC calls true broadband here in SA. Seriously, if they can get 256Kbps as the SLOWEST option between 3 and 5 light minutes away surely we can aim for something better for a standard in SA?!?!?

 

[ebendl]

this..



What kinda hurts is the slowest speed via the orbiters is the same speed the DoC calls true broadband here in SA. Seriously, if they can get 256Kbps as the SLOWEST option between 3 and 5 light minutes away surely we can aim for something better for a standard in SA?!?!?

At least our latency is still better...

 

[Roman4604]

Ok, so why is the technology inside the Curiosity so outdated? I can understand the slow transfer rate but why the outdated hardware? My phone has more advanced hardware and my phone is also almost 2 years old now.

Explained here (from 00:33:10) ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BArApRIjdTI

 

[ebendl]

Somebody watch the video and give us an update? Can't watch youtube at work...

 

[Paul_S]

At least our latency is still better...

I was actually thinking about that when I read the article.

The concept of TCP/IP would work but the the data packets would have to be huge and/or numerous in order to get any sort of throughput. You can't constantly wait for handshaking or error correction packets so the rover would have to start transmitting for several minutes before it started receiving retransmit packets back from Earth.
Would be interesting to see the protocol spec.

 

[Sinbad]

I was actually thinking about that when I read the article.

The concept of TCP/IP would work but the the data packets would have to be huge and/or numerous in order to get any sort of throughput. You can't constantly wait for handshaking or error correction packets so the rover would have to start transmitting for several minutes before it started receiving retransmit packets back from Earth.
Would be interesting to see the protocol spec.

Huge transmit and receive windows

 

[ebendl]

I'm guessing it is more a UDP type spec with a lot of redundancy and error checking in each packet, obviously also with some acknowledgements every now and then.

That's most likely why the throughput is so slow.