Blogs/Robert Walker/Will First Mars Astronauts Stay In Orbit - Tele-operating Sterile Rovers - To Protect Earth And Mars From Colliding Biospheres: Difference between revisions

The only comparison study I know of, HERRO, found that a mission by a crew of six in orbit around Mars, teleoperating rovers on the surface, does [https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20130011281.pdf as much science as three missions of the same size to the surface] for far less cost. They also found that they can use their telerobots to explore anywhere on Mars, including the hard to access polar regions. These regions of Mars are not likely to see a human landing for a long time, because of long continuous periods of darkness, and a thick extra layer of dry ice every winter. HERRO’s carefully chosen orbit lets the astronauts tele-operate rovers over the entire surface of Mars with almost no time delay, for hours at a time for each location (it skims the sunlit side of Mars twice a day every Martian day, visiting opposite hemispheres, always in sunshine, and flies close to both poles twice a day too, giving global coverage).

 

 

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<blockquote>Image: A teleoperated Centaur-style robot on Mars. Carter Emmart/NASA Ames Research Center - from [https://web.archive.org/web/20150228142403/http://www.wired.com:80/2012/11/telerobotic-exploration/all Almost Being There: Why the Future of Space Exploration Is Not What You Think]