Newsgroups: sci.space
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: CRAF/Cassini Update - 11/09/90
Message-ID: <1990Nov14.172211.25340@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1990Nov11.001924.10302@jato.jpl.nasa.gov> <7034.273fd310@abo.fi> <976@public.BTR.COM>
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 90 17:22:11 GMT

In article <976@public.BTR.COM> joshi@public.BTR.COM (Nikhil R. Joshi  joshi@btr.com) writes:
> Was the Viking lander at least partially solar powered? ...

No, the Viking landers (there were two) used RTGs.  The surface of Mars
is not a good place for solar power.  You have the usual annoying problem
of it being night half the time, but the real killer is the dust storms,
which can cut surface illumination to nearly zero for months at a time.

> ... But then why can't we
> put an RTG like Voyager's on the probe?

The problem is not power, but the total lack of information on surface
conditions.
-- 
"I don't *want* to be normal!"         | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
"Not to worry."                        |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry