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Next Gen Mars Rover Gets Spanish Weather Station

Yes, we are going back to Mars, even if, for the time being we'll do it as we've done it before, through the lenses of the Mars Rovers. Until the world is ready to send manned missions to Mars, NASA scientists are now working on the new generation Rover, one which will be launched at an yet undetermined date.

The Martian vehicle will be one made from parts coming from all over the world, including from countries not traditionally associated with space exploration. Spain for instance, even if it lacks the required expertise to become an active space explorer, has enough knowledge to design the weather instruments which will be fitted on the vehicle.

The system created by the Spanish scientists is made of materials which have to support extreme temperatures, wobbling from 130 degrees Celsius (202 degrees Fahrenheit) at night to minus 50 C (about minus 60 F) during the day.

"That was our biggest engineering challenge," said REMS Principal Investigator Javier Gomez-Elvira, an aeronautical engineer with the Centro de Astrobiología, Madrid, Spain. "The sensors will get very cold and go through great changes in temperature every day."

The family of Mars Rovers are six-wheeler, solar powered vehicles. The current generation, currently on location on Mars, weighs 180 kg (397 lbs) and stand at 1.5 m high (59 inches), 2.3 m wide (90.6 inches) and 1.6 m long (63 inches). The rocker-bogie suspension system allows each of the Rover's wheels to remain attached to the ground, regardless of the type of terrain.

Top speed of the vehicles is 50 mm/seconds (0.18 km/h), making them the single slowest, most expensive self-propelled vehicles ever made by man.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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