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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the jules-verne-would-be-proud dept.

A good watch can take a beating and keep on ticking. With the right parts, can a rover do the same on a planet like Venus?

A concept inspired by clockwork computers and World War I tanks could one day help us find out.

[...] AREE was first proposed in 2015 by Jonathan Sauder, a mechatronics engineer at JPL. He was inspired by mechanical computers, which use levers and gears to make calculations rather than electronics.

By avoiding electronics, a rover might be able to better explore Venus. The planet's hellish atmosphere creates pressures that would crush most submarines. Its average surface temperature is 864 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees Celsius), high enough to melt lead.

[...] Another problem will be communications. Without electronics, how would you transmit science data? Current plans are inspired by another age-old technology: Morse code.

An orbiting spacecraft could ping the rover using radar. The rover would have a radar target, which if shaped correctly, would act like "stealth technology in reverse," Sauder said. Stealth planes have special shapes that disperse radar signals; Sauder is exploring how to shape these targets to brightly reflect signals instead. Adding a rotating shutter in front of the radar target would allow the rover to turn the bright, reflected spot on and off, communicating much like signal lamps on Navy ships.

Mechanical computers and Morse code. The future of Venusian exploration is steampunk.


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday August 29 2017, @09:43PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday August 29 2017, @09:43PM (#561170)

    You're also forgetting the fun of designing the copper-clad space blimp which will take it from Earth, and deposit that thing on the Venusian surface without exceeding 0.1G at any time during the trip.

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