{"id":27998,"date":"2015-10-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ashleydev.com\/2015\/10\/24\/exploring-mars-nuclear-power-makes-it-possible\/"},"modified":"2020-08-27T11:38:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T15:38:45","slug":"exploring-mars-nuclear-power-makes-it-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cna.ca\/fr\/2015\/10\/24\/exploring-mars-nuclear-power-makes-it-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Mars: Nuclear Power Makes it&nbsp;Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three years after landing on Mars, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/msl\/\">Curiosity rover<\/a>\u00a0is still going strong. The size of an SUV, rovers have been leading the way in scientific discoveries on the Red Planet by collecting pictures and data. Since 2012 the rover mission has been powered by nuclear energy.<a href=\"http:\/\/talknuclear.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/mars-rover.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4465\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4465\" src=\"http:\/\/talknuclear.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/mars-rover.jpg\" alt=\"mars rover\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1406\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrevious rovers were solar powered and the life span wasn\u2019t long, but the switch to nuclear allowed it to live longer,\u201d according to Dr. Ashwin Vasavada, a lead scientist on a team of 500 experts who are the eyes and ears on Earth for rover\u2019s missions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDust would accumulate on the solar panels over time and there is no way to clean the panels,\u201d says Vasavada. \u201cYou can\u2019t bring water with you. So in order to remove that risk we went to a longer, more reliable power supply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Curiosity carries about five kilograms of on-board nuclear power. Heat and electricity are generated by the decay of plutonium-238. As it erodes, it transforms itself into uranium-234. This change gives off a tremendous amount of heat, some of which circulates through Curiosity to keep the instruments warm, and some which converts into electricity to keep the rover working 24\/7.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s where Ryan Bechtel comes in, along with his team at the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/energy.gov\/ne\/nuclear-reactor-technologies\/space-power-systems\">Office of Space and Defense Power Systems at the U.S. Department of Energy<\/a>. As a power systems safety manager for NASA, he and his fellow engineers are responsible for powering Curiosity.<\/p>\n<p>The rover\u2019s power system uses a design based on similar technology used for the Viking landers in the 1970s.It\u2019s called a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mars.jpl.nasa.gov\/mars2020\/files\/mep\/MMRTG_FactSheet_update_10-2-13.pdf\">Multi Mission Radioisotopic Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG)<\/a>. Approximately two feet high and two feet in diameter, the MMRTG keeps the rover going around the clock. That\u2019s an accomplishment, in a world where nighttime temperatures usually drop well below -70C \u2013 and sometimes reach -100C.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt makes operations significantly easier because you don\u2019t have to worry about the weather conditions and where the sun is pointed in the sky depending on season or time of day,\u201d says Bechtel. \u201cSo it allows for continuous charging for the battery, which ultimately results in more science being collected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Innovation\u2014some of it Canadian\u2014turns up in other Curiosity systems, including the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.asc-csa.gc.ca\/eng\/astronomy\/mars\/apxs.asp\">Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)<\/a>. This instrument, funded by the Canadian Space Agency, sits on the rover\u2019s arm, looking down at the surface. It detects and analyzes the chemical elements within the rocks and soil. This helps scientists to determine more precisely the history of Mars, and to assess whether the Red Planet could ever have supported life.<\/p>\n<p>While the science teams are sifting through Curiosity\u2019s data, they\u2019re also preparing for the next big step in Martian exploration \u2013 the Mars 2020 probe. It\u2019s scheduled to land in February 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mars.nasa.gov\/mars2020\/\">Mars 2020 rover<\/a>\u00a0will test new technology to benefit future robotic and human exploration of Mars. And, just like Curiosity, it will run on nuclear power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three years after landing on Mars, the\u00a0Curiosity rover\u00a0is still going strong. The size of an SUV, rovers have been leading the way in scientific discoveries on the Red Planet by collecting pictures and data. Since 2012 the rover mission has been powered by nuclear energy. \u201cPrevious rovers were solar powered and the life span wasn\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[537],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-27998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-talknuclear"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Exploring Mars: Nuclear Power Makes it Possible - Association nucl\u00e9aire canadienne<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cna.ca\/fr\/2015\/10\/24\/exploring-mars-nuclear-power-makes-it-possible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exploring Mars: Nuclear Power Makes it Possible - Association nucl\u00e9aire canadienne\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Three years after landing on Mars, the\u00a0Curiosity rover\u00a0is still going strong. 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