The solar-powered Spirit’s yearlong ascent to the peak of Husband Hill – part of the low-ranging Columbia Hills – was a major feat for the six-wheel rover, which along with its twin, Opportunity, landed on opposite sides of Mars in January 2004 to look for evidence of the past history of water on the cold, dusty world.
The rover reached the 270-foot-high (82-meter) summit – about the height of the Statue of Liberty – on August 21.
“That’s no Mount Everest, but for a little rover this was a heck of a climb,” mission principal investigator Steve Squyres said in a briefing televised from NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“This is an unprecedented engineering robotic accomplishment,” he said.
Re: Works in Mars, why not here? Day 591 of 90 !!!
That GS has very few people interested in interest-worthy things.
May be if we can come up with an anti-Islam conspiray theory for the Mars exploration program we can get some people involved in solar energy matters.
That countries like India with such abundance of sunlight should be targeting direct solar program a lot more (a large number of new buildings in Bangalore have small solar generators but those can be much more) as well as indirect programs (such as vegetable oil fuels)
Re: Works in Mars, why not here? Day 591 of 90 !!!
Yes it does tell us something about solar energy! That the tiny battery packs can be charged using solar cells. We are already using that technology on earth, and low-earth orbit to power small phone networks (emergency phones on long highways), or satellites etc.
However the capital cost and the cell efficiency is not good enough for the solar cells to be deployed for home or industrial use, at least for now.
Re: Works in Mars, why not here? Day 591 of 90 !!!
^ not true at all. Almost every new house built in Bangalore has a solar powered water heater. There are green buildings that use solar as well as other natural resources effectively to cut down conventional power and water usage by 50 to 60 % (including a large one in NYC, and a couple of Bangalore).
Re: Works in Mars, why not here? Day 591 of 90 !!!
You are mixing apples and oranges (as usual). Bugnalore water heaters are not solar cell powered. That means they do not use the high-tech energy cycle of solar->electric->heat.
They instead are using a very low-tech direct solar->heat cycle by pre-heating intake water going to the heaters. You can accomplish this by putting a coil of water circulated pipes up on your roof. It cuts down on electric bill in tropical areas but it has no large-scale use in colder climates where outside temps drop below freezing.
Re: Works in Mars, why not here? Day 591 of 90 !!!
You are mixing apples and oranges (as usual). Bungalore water heaters are not solar cell powered. That means they do not use the high-tech energy cycle of solar->electric->heat.
They instead are using a very low-tech and ancient direct solar->heat cycle by pre-heating intake water going to the heaters. You can accomplish this by putting a coil of water circulated pipes up on your roof. It cuts down on electric bill in tropical areas but it has no large-scale use in colder climates where outside temps drop below freezing.
Re: Works in Mars, why not here? Day 591 of 90 !!!
^oh puleeeeze! don't be like a delhi babu and start screwing around with word games. did you get the point of the thread about the viability and using solar and other energy sources so that we can cut of the funds to arabic terrorism or not? that's all there is to it.
if somebody in BLR wants hot water, why do they care whether it is solar=heat or solar=electricity=heat? obviously the method will match the requirement.