| A major component of any piece of NASA | | | | The rovers we will be sending to moons or |
| exploration equipment is the power plant and | | | | other planets will be cruising on the surface |
| charging system. The Mars Rover like any | | | | and motor over bumps. I propose we use these |
| other rover design has had issues with solar | | | | bumps to up the lights using electromagnetic |
| panels getting dirty and low battery levels. | | | | induction technology, which will charge a |
| At one point it had to wait to charge and was | | | | capacitor instead of the headlights working |
| having issues due to Marian fine sand | | | | off a battery. Currently there are some nifty |
| covering the solar cells. Then suddenly it | | | | micro-flashlights being used which you can |
| started working again. Why? Well some believe | | | | buy which use a similar technique and are |
| a dust devil came along and cleaned it? | | | | available thanks to the Everlite Flashlight |
| Whatever the real reason it is now running | | | | technology research lab. These smaller |
| again fine and has outlasted all expectations | | | | flashlights work by shaking them for about |
| of tenure on its mission. | | | | thirty seconds and shine for about 6 minutes |
| | | | and they shine quite bright since they use a |
| We need better ways to conserve energy, | | | | very bright LED light. Here is a link to this |
| better batteries and more efficient motors. | | | | home use flashlight: |
| That is the quest to refine these | | | | |
| tele-robotic systems to do more with less. We | | | | Here is a quick movie you can watch online to |
| must conserve energy for drilling into rocks, | | | | see how this technology works. |
| using robotic arms to collect samples, | | | | |
| mobility of rover, communication, video | | | | If these rover lights grow dim from too |
| cameras, computer processors and of course | | | | smooth of a surface or perfectly paved roads, |
| lighting. If we can delete some of these | | | | yah, we wish, we don't even have those on |
| power hungry systems, we can provide our | | | | Earth, then the system would revert back to |
| exploratory vehicles with advantages, which | | | | the battery. Perhaps this is a good way to |
| will be needed in future rovers. | | | | save the battery juice? Think on this. |
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