Curiosity: 4844th day of the mission

[nf3xn@mastodon.social]

@Ann_Effes @SCALETHEORY @pomarede I think by now we have to realize that NASA scientists lie through their teeth about how long things are expected to last just so they extend the mission with "oh well it's there now it would be a real shame to waste it amazing its lasted this long... nooo us? would we do that? never!"

[drewtowler@mas.to]

@pomarede That'll buff out.

[brouhaha@mastodon.social]

@nyrath @Ann_Effes @pomarede
Very few engineered devices with either moving or electronic parts are actually engineered for more than a five year life. Some things are rated for ten year life, but that's actually rare. Things that last longer are due to having good margins, not due to a longer planned lifespan. Especially not for years with NO maintenance.

[jimfl@hachyderm.io]

@Ann_Effes @SCALETHEORY @pomarede Building a bridge that doesn’t fall down is easy. Building a bridge that just barely doesn’t fall down is challenging

[accordionbruce@mastodon.social]

@nf3xn @Ann_Effes @SCALETHEORY @pomarede
Never occurred to me those Voyager scientists were planing a generations–long job-retention plan for themselves

[nf3xn@mastodon.social]

@AccordionBruce @Ann_Effes @SCALETHEORY @pomarede look how much _science_ we can fit in this >slaps roof<

[glitzersachen@hachyderm.io]

@burne @pomarede

Makes me sad, somehow.

[feloniouspunk@beige.party]

@pomarede And that's after driving ~20 miles.

[nf3xn@mastodon.social]

@AccordionBruce @Ann_Effes @SCALETHEORY @pomarede on a more sad and serious note we are talking about turning off missions like Juno due to cuts when the pedo in chief is burning through the NASA budget in a couple of weeks with his reverse regime change.

[internic@mathstodon.xyz]

@brouhaha @nyrath The latter is usually the case for things headed to space, especially if you can't practically switch over to a redundant spare. Since you went to all the money and effort to put it in space, you want to make sure it works for the intended mission life with high confidence, so you add a fair bit of margin, which means it has a good chance to last quite a bit longer than the intended mission life. But, as @Ann_Effes points out, there are costs to doing that, so you try not to go too overboard. @pomarede

[caity@bne.social]

@burne @pomarede

[herrlorenz@chaos.social]

@pomarede Alright, Mars winds – now do Elon

[blazr@chaos.social]

@pomarede @Cheatha ...reckless drivers on #mars.

[hyratel@yiff.life]

@internic @brouhaha @nyrath @Ann_Effes @pomarede consider also that that wheel is disintegrating, but only from the main support ring inwards. The outer 1/3 looks still fairly intact and loadbearing. They'll have to be mindful of what they drive over, to avoid getting too much into "Air Sand" because the ground pressure on that wheel is going to go way up. but it can still ride over rocks just fine; the spokes and support ring should take care of that much.

[hyratel@yiff.life]

@internic @brouhaha @nyrath @Ann_Effes @pomarede something that's noted in a lot of the literature around the wheels is an academically surprised tone over 'cracks seem to propagate from corner features of the grouser chevrons' which is .... Engineering 100: That's a stress concentration. Why are you surprised. (Percy's wheels have Wave grousers instead, and they're spaced closer together, so should hold up better)

[blazr@chaos.social]

@pomarede do they still play the wakeup-songs every morning?

here is my wish for the next song:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6NdX7DthSxdXpRXDSQZZKS

[frank@f.reun.de]

@burne @pomarede This makes me sad! 🥹 Let's go for a visit at least!

[lucas@toot.treffenstaedt.de]

@pomarede TÜV is sending their best man to Mars right now.

[sigi714@ruhr.social]

@silvermoon82 @pomarede Still functioning

[nf3xn@mastodon.social]

@Ann_Effes @SCALETHEORY @pomarede of course it is a joke - the engineering skill required by NASA to keep Voyagers alive is incomprehensible to all but a few thousand people on the planet of which thankfully I am one. I was an excited child when they were announced, were finally launched, have followed them since and thank goodness for the foresight of those engineers to be able to probe beyond our solar system. It was not their primary objective but not enough dollars in the world to buy that.