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