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A comment on Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video]. Parent comment

Re:Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video] by xarope on Thursday February 18, 2021 @09:47PM (#26188984)
Ships do this all the time (ballast), and anybody who's ever flown on a light aircraft or helicopter also knows the importance a pilot places on weight distribution.

I guess what's surprising is that they needed that much weight (140+kg seems like a lot?) and couldn't redistribute existing componentry; guess the knapsack algorithm wasn't good enough, or that they just couldn't break up enough pieces?

And yes, Cruise Mass Balance Devices sounds like the type of name a tired engineer would come up with to convince upper management...lol

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Re:Perseverance Rover lands on Mars [video] by FredFS456 on Thursday February 18, 2021 @11:18PM (#26189654)
They can't redistribute existing componentry because of competing requirements: during cruise, the spacecraft needs to be balanced around the rotational axis (perseverance rotates at 2RPM in cruise). During re-entry, an asymmetric weight distribution is needed to generate lift.
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