Mars Rovers Update

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Now if only automobile manufacturers could make cars as long-lasting as the MER.

Kudos to everyone at NASA for this mission!

Although I agree that the rovers are a fantastic achievement, give me their budget and I will happily assembly you a car that will function for 900 days, or even triple that. You do need to limit speed to a few MPH, distance per day to a few dozens of meters, no moving traffic nearer than a hemisphere.... I'll even throw in the low temperature and solar-powered package, no extra charge !

The point is, everything is a compromise. For a million dollars, we can build a very reliable Ford Fiesta - but would you buy it? What if we sold a car for $800 - but it always needed repairs frequently (like, once a mile or more) - would you buy that? Between those two extremes lies "what the market accepts" - which is (hopefully) close to what you've built.

This is the basic essence of Engineering: Getting more for less.

Don

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Although I agree that the rovers are a fansastic achievement, give me their budget and I will happily assembly you a car that will function for 900 days, or even triple that. You do need to limit speed to a few MPH, distance per day to a few dozens of meters, no moving traffic nearer than a hemisphere.... I'll even throw in the low telperature and solar-powered package, no extra charge !

The point is, everything is a compromise. For a million dollars, we can build a very reliable Ford Fiesta - but would you buy it? What if we sold a car for $800 - but it always needed repairs frequently (like, once a mile or more) - would you buy that? Between those two extremes lies "what the market accepts" - which is (hopefully) close to what you've built.

This is the basic essence of Engineering: Getting more for less.

Don

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Don Rotolo again." Drat!

But to get back to the topic, the software seems interesting. I always enjoy reading how groups take their past learning experiences, both good and bad, and use them to develop new applications.

[JohnBoucher]

Great article in todays NY Times science section also
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/sc...=1&oref=slogin

Watch the video. It is so cool, it could be a game hint

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

This is the basic essence of Engineering: Getting more for less.
Don

I beg to differ. That's the basic essence of consumerism. The basic essence of engineering is add more features and who cares about cost.

The project manager (not the engineers) keep it in check as to how much it will cost in the long run, and if you have to sacrifice features, then marketing plays up the ones you have.

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

I beg to differ. That's the basic essence of consumerism. The basic essence of engineering is add more features and who cares about cost.

The project manager (not the engineers) keep it in check as to how much it will cost in the long run, and if you have to sacrifice features, then marketing plays up the ones you have.

Ummmm... nope!
Engineers often have set budgets to work within. These budgets are a major factor which can drive design-tradeoffs.

I'm hoping from your "" that you were just joking, but I'd also like to make it clear to all the budding-young-enginerds out there that the methods outlined in your post isn't the way things work. I make decisions everyday which are driven by cost-considerations.

Striking the balance between function and cost is the challenge we all face.
We deal with these decisions each season on our robots -- weight-constraints, and size-constraints often keep me up at night during the 6-weeks. This can be just like real-life.

JV

[BrianBSL]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

I beg to differ. That's the basic essence of consumerism. The basic essence of engineering is add more features and who cares about cost.

The project manager (not the engineers) keep it in check as to how much it will cost in the long run, and if you have to sacrifice features, then marketing plays up the ones you have.

If I designed everything with no regard for cost, and just let the project manager shoot it down...I wouldn't have a job anymore. They honestly don't have time to deal with cutting unnecessary costs and expect you to make reasonable compromises, and only defer the large functionality changes to them. At least where I work, thats the way it is.