Mars exploration rovers spirit and opportunity exploring the planet mars facts information videos and pictures.
Curiosity rover solar panels.
On august 6 2012 the most recent rover landed on mars.
One consequence is that the mars exploration rovers couldn t work for more that half of the time.
The power source generates 9 mj 2 5 kwh of electrical energy each day much more than the solar panels of the now retired mars exploration rovers which generated about 2 1 mj 0 58 kwh each day.
The curiosity rover is bigger needs more power.
Without power it cannot move use its science instruments or communicate with earth.
Photo courtesy of nasa.
But these plutonium units are a respected power source for spacecraft nasa s curiosity rover.
The rovers by name curiosity.
Curiosity carries a radioisotope power system that generates electricity from the heat of plutonium s radioactive decay.
The rover requires power to operate.
Opportunity set a new record for travel on an extraterrestrial location by driving a total of 2806 mi 45 16 km.
This power source gives the mission an operating.
They believe the dust covered the rover s solar power.
The 2 main drawbacks of solar panels is that they don t work during the night and they don t work during the martian winter.