SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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.
(Score: 2) by driven on Tuesday August 29 2017, @10:54PM (2 children)
Very interesting idea. However, how would you analyze soil samples?
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Tuesday August 29 2017, @11:16PM
For any kind of sensing you'd need the ability to translate an interesting sensed quantity into a physical movement.
Imagine you had a chemical which was solid but decomposed under the presence of certain compounds in the sample. It could hold back a spring attached to a reflector tuned to a particular frequency. Then, the reaction of the reflector would indicate the presence of those compounds. Some clever chemistry would be required :)
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday August 30 2017, @10:27AM
In the same way Qui-Gon took a blood sample from Anakin and asked Obi-Wan to analyse it over the communicator. Don't worry about piddling details.