Re:The Mars Helicopter Is Online and Getting Ready to Fly
by madaxe_again on Sunday February 28, 2021 @02:32PM
(#26296292)
Between the two. 30 µSv per hour on the surface of Mars on average compared to 60 µSv on the Moon - compared to 5 µSv on a jet. Not friendly, but not too awful.
Re:The Mars Helicopter Is Online and Getting Ready to Fly
by dmurray on Sunday February 28, 2021 @03:01PM
(#26296506)
Or 0.5 per hour on Earth at sea level. That's only 2 orders of magnitude difference. Given that we don't expect radiation damage to be a major source of failures in Earthbound consumer or commercial electronics, it's a bit surprising it's such a big deal in space.
Re:The Mars Helicopter Is Online and Getting Ready to Fly
by azernik on Sunday February 28, 2021 @04:59PM
(#26297495)
The composition of that radiation is important - Earth's atmosphere preferentially filters out a lot of the higher-energy particles that are likely to permanently damage electronics. The sievert as a unit is weighted based on damage to biological systems, not electronics.
Re:The Mars Helicopter Is Online and Getting Ready to Fly
by contravariant on Sunday February 28, 2021 @04:08PM
(#26297075)
Well 2 orders of magnitude can turn a problem that occurs once a decade into a problem that occurs once a month so it's not too surprising that the problem is a bigger deal in space.
Re:The Mars Helicopter Is Online and Getting Ready to Fly
by nradov on Sunday February 28, 2021 @03:18PM
(#26296663)
There are actually a lot of bit flips in Earthbound electronics due to lack of parity error checking. But those bit flips don't necessarily cause failures, or when they do it's impossible to determine the root cause.
Re:The Mars Helicopter Is Online and Getting Ready to Fly
by emkoemko on Sunday February 28, 2021 @03:10PM
(#26296587)
yes but these chips having to function and survive on the way to the planet right? and they do all sorts of software updates etc during this time. Maybe we could shield them and that would be fine? or would that add to much extra weight
Is it like the situation high in earth's atmosphere (like using your ipad on a commercial flight), or would it be more like on the moon with no protection?