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Nuclear decay-driven machines could gather gases from the atmosphere of Mars, giving future robotic missions leaps of a kilometre, researchers say. A design concept in Proceedings of the Royal Society A outlines an approach to compress CO2 and liquefy it.
The liquid would then be heated much as in a standard rocket, expanding violently into a gas to propel exploratory craft great distances. The authors suggest this is a better strategy to see more of the Red Planet.
While the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity provided far more data than was initially planned, as vehicles that are powered by the sun and get around on wheels, they are limited in their overall range of exploration.
As a result, researchers have been looking into means of getting farther with future robotic missions to Mars. Ideas including landers with wings or lighter-than-atmosphere balloons have been proposed, or even "inflatable tumbleweeds" that are blown across the landscape.
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