Wednesday, November 16, 2011

How was the mars rover balloon lander thing able to right itself after it deflates?

i watched nasa sim of it and after the balloons deflate the rover comes out and voild --its right side up.





??|||The capsule that held the rover was a tetrahedron - four triangular sides, one of which was the base. A sensor on the lander figured out which face was down. If it wasn't the base, it opened the side that was facing down, which would flip the lander onto its base. Then the other sides open up and the rover can roll out.|||but how could it. if there is one parachute how did it get another one


although it was watched with camera to a station

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|||but how could it. if there is one parachute how did it get another one


although it was watched with camera to a station

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|||You just release the pressure inside? Its not that hard. You just need to activate a valve.|||I'd imagine that it could be righted by a number of means, from remote control, computer programming, pre-assigned design, to just plain luck, just to name a few.|||This is just from memory, and what comes to my mind, but...





I think the container within the balloons, which held the rover, was a kind of pyramid-shaped thing, whose sides then folded outward to release the rover once the balloons had deflated. For example, imagine a four-sided pyramid lying on its side. As the triangular sides open up like a flower, it is forced to set down on its proper base, no matter which way it landed originally.





I can't reference this for sure, but that's the best guess I can offer.

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