Mars rover: Wind sensor damaged on Nasa's Curiosity

Nasa has reported its first setback in the Curiosity rover mission to Mars.

A sensor on the robot's weather station that takes wind readings has sustained damage.

The mission team stresses this is not a major problem and will merely degrade some measurements - not prevent them.

It is not certain how the damage occurred but engineers suspect surface stones thrown up during Curiosity's rocket-powered landing may have struck sensor circuits and broken the wiring.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Mmm? I hope this does not set them back too much. I wonder if it would hinder it's ability to forecast bad weather? Something was bound to happen like this, I'm just glad after all this rover has been through it's just a small thing like this!

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I have a feeling this will not be much of a setback at all

"We will have to be more clever about using the remaining wind sensor to get wind speed and direction."

They've got another wind sensor, and they just need to be clever... seems something they are pretty good at.

NASA update

The good news is that the steering seems to be working.



Drive test tomorrow.

"Late tonight, we plan to send Curiosity the commands for doing our first drive tomorrow," said Curiosity Mission Manager Michael Watkins of JPL.

reply to post by Zarniwoop


It's a beautiful thing!

Can't wait for Rover to go fetch!

Hopefully they will be able to work around the problem (I mean, still get the science don that they want to do).

At least the laser-beam rock zapper is working...Pew! pew! pew! :
First Laser-Zapped Rock on Mars

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

..Pew! pew! pew!

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

At least the laser-beam rock zapper is working...Pew! pew! pew!

:
First Laser-Zapped Rock on Mars

Mars deserves to be zapped quite soundly for all the zapping it's done to our probes in the past.

Well, crap.
But at least they had some redundancy so hopefully not all is lost.
I can't wait for them to send her exploring-a-go-go.

With the degree of complexity and innovation this mission had is pretty remarkable that the only thing that was screwed in the descent was ONLY ONE of the wind-sensors and not the wheels, cameras, rayguns or nuclear oven.... man... lasers and ovens on wheels... on mars.... How more awesome can this get?
(yeah, yeah, ships landing in washington blah blah, i'm speaking realistically )

reply to post by drakus

the only thing that was screwed in the descent was ONLY ONE of the wind-sensors

SHHH! Don't Jinx it!!!

reply to post by CaptainBeno




so just what ?? did they expect to 'break wind'on Mars... and have measured/analyzed


what they got ? a faulty wind-sock or a weather-vane ? (very low cost, low tech instrument)
or a instrument that determines the wind composition (very expensive equiptment)

reply to post by St Udio


Curiosity's Wind Sock

I assume by "Wind Composition" you mean atmosphere composition. They seem to have that pretty nailed down already, but are measuring for radiation levels.

reply to post by CaptainBeno

Yeah, for two and a half billion, couldn't they have made rover look like a dog?

I would like to know what evidence there is of wind on Mars anyway.
Apart from the "dust devils" that is.

In my book, there should be a build-up around rocks on the windward side and a hollowing out on the leeward side.
The MERs were supposedly kept clean by the wind, but any wind strong enough to clean the rubbish off the MERs solar panels would be strong enough to make itself seen around the rocks.

There should also be significant wind erosion making the rocks smooth and rounded over all those billions of years, and the little "blueberries" should all be in piles by being blown in the wind..... but no, I dont see that. Maybe because there is no wind on the movie set perhaps?

Perhaps there is someone who can explain this strength of wind thing to me please?

reply to post by qmantoo

I would like to know what evidence there is of wind on Mars anyway.
Apart from the "dust devils" that is.

Shifting Sand Dunes

Originally posted by qmantoo
In my book, there should be a build-up around rocks on the windward side and a hollowing out on the leeward side.

That may be true if "leeward" and "windward" were always in constant directions. I think, just like Earth, the winds change direction.