![May contain highly technical content requiring degree-level education or above Boffin](/design_picker/fa16d26efb42e6ba1052f1d387470f643c5aa18d/graphics/icons/comment/boffin_48.png)
As we make the pathways for electrons smaller it becomes ever more likely they will get jammed so bashing the system will clearly be the most effective fix going forward.
The percussive maintenance NASA carried out on the Curiosity Rover's drilling machinery has worked, and the robot has started analysing Martian rock samples again. In mid-May, NASA announced its plan to restart the drill, which had been out of action since a motor failed in October 2016. Agency boffins first tried “Feed …
"All good technicians have a selection of hammers ..."
I disagree - all good technicians should have an HSE-approved protective pad of hard skin on the heel of their hand which can be delivered in a highly focused force distribution pattern and frequency to match specific system requirements ...
OMG surely you're forgetting one, I have it anyway. The thickened callus on the forehead from beating it on walls when the palm and knuckle pads fail to resolve the issue.
New product, folks? Wall-mounted Therapy Pad, placed like fire extinguishers in strategic locations? Customizable of course, maybe the company logo would be appropriate for once!
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Indeed, bashing things is the basis for all technology, bashing rocks together gives you sharp edges for cutting and sparks for fire, bashing other animals stops them eating you and gives you food.
Bashing other people gives you whatever they had before you bashed them.
Bashing a keyboard gives you ...........Facebook!
One unavoidable trade-off in getting the drill working again is that some science had to be abandoned: “Curiosity's drill is now permanently extended,” the post said, a configuration that means it can no longer use its sieve device, the CHIMERA (Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis).
No doubt the boffins will figure out a way to resolve this problem as well.
They have - ""feed extended drilling". The drill feed motor extends and retracts the chunk and drill bit assembly by a few cm. Instead they're positioning the drill bit using the entire arm and turret, which is potentially problematic (which is why the mass and complexity of a drill feed mechanism was sent to Mars in the first place.)
Mars soil is very dry and since nobody could pop over to Mars and see if the technique worked there was concern that the powder would fall off the bit on the way to the laboratory.
Given the ambiguity of the presence of water on Mars i would have assumed the soil was completely dry meaning 0 moisture. If it was just very dry i would have thought NASA and company would have been jumping at the bit to get over there and do more intense life sign searches.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/mars-buried-water-ice-subsurface-geology-astronauts-science/
https://news.sky.com/story/nasa-discovery-of-water-on-mars-was-actually-sand-11139736
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/steep-slopes-on-mars-reveal-structure-of-buried-ice
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/recurring-martian-streaks-flowing-sand-not-water
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I was sent to study what a tech was doing to tune a waveguide manifold for a radar antenna feed. Picture a rectangular pipe ... machined to incredible precision ... with a large number of branch lines coming off, each fed through a carefully designed and calibrated slot. Opposite the slots are dozens of little screws (with lock nuts) that partially protrude into the guide for tuning. Tens of thousands of $, and hooked to hundreds of grand worth of test equipment
And the tech? Carefully filing off all the exposed cal screws and brazing the stubs to render useless. He has a stick with quarter wavelengths marked off and is industriously beating divots into the E plane with a ball peen hammer or crushing the guide with a C clamp on H, with his beatings or bulges aligned with the quarter wave marks. He's concentrating very hard on the network analyzer display while beating the hell out of the guide.
Me: "why dont you just use the tuners?"
Tech: "you gotta eliminate any adjustment. Leave a screw head exposed and some sailors gonna turn it and fsck up everything "
Tech: "do it my way and she stays tuned forever"
.
.
.
"Tech: what happens when you give a sailor three large ball bearings?
Me: ?
"Tech: ones gonna get broken, ones gonna get lost, and ones gonna get pregnant "
And so I shut up and learned f