Future Planetary Exploration: Mars 2019 Instruments
Last week, NASA鈥檚 managers announced the selection of seven instruments for its 2020 Mars rover from a pool of 58 proposals submitted by teams of scientists. Reading through the capabilities of the instruments makes them seem like technology from science fiction, complete with lasers and x-rays. However, the types of instruments that weren鈥檛 selected say almost as much about the goals and expectations for the mission as those that were. This mission will be optimized for finding the best samples to return to Earth rather than carrying out the most sophisticated science that could have been sent to Mars. The Mars 2020 rover will be based on the design of the Curiosity rover but will have a new instrument suite and hardware for collecting and caching samples for possible return to Earth. For Mars, the key questions are about the earliest environments present on Mars, whether they could have enabled the development of life, and whether life or its precursors arose.
Sand storms, immense heat and punishing jumps are just some of the challenges that pushed man and machine to the limit. Behind-the-scenes footage shows the man behind the drive - 47 year-old Spanish off-road racer Moi Torrallardona - and charts the physical and mental endurance that led to his success. Torrallardona said: 鈥淭he Empty Quarter was an incredible challenge and one that will live with me for the rest of my life. The Range Rover Sport was the ideal tool for conquering the desert and it is great to be able to relive the challenge through this short documentary. The challenge was completed in a standard production new Range Rover Sport with a 510PS 5.0-litre supercharged V8 petrol engine, running standard tyres. The only modification to the vehicle was the fitment of an underbody protection plate. This vehicle was displayed at the Dubai Motor Show on the 5th November, just two days after completing the desert crossing. The class-leading, genuine Land Rover all-terrain capability, breakthrough lightweight suspension design and innovative dynamic chassis technologies all helped the new Range Rover Sport conquer one of its toughest challenges yet. These feats are part of a series of global driving challenges in which the Range Rover Sport is pushed to new limits. The Empty Quarter spans four countries in the Arabic Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Temperatures regularly rise above 50掳C and any crossing, no matter how well organised, must be approached with extreme caution. Developed alongside the highly-acclaimed Range Rover, the new Range Rover Sport delivers the brand鈥檚 best-ever on-road dynamics together with class-leading, genuine Land Rover all-terrain capability. It presents customers with a more assertive and muscular exterior, more luxurious interior and the flexibility provided by the option of occasional third row seating.
Such flat-panel control-display combinations may look flashy and do provide a high degree of customization and reconfiguration, but they do nothing to convey luxuriousness. Without feedback or an actuation of a physical button, the 鈥渜uality feel鈥?of the switches is absent. Cadillac and Lincoln have both learned from their mistaken foray into buttonless panels and have recently retreated from such panel-intensive interiors, but apparently this lesson needs to be learned by the next bunch of automakers like Land Rover and Volkswagen. The controls largely ruin what is otherwise a lovely interior that uses premium materials throughout, with high-grade leather, real wood and metal trim, and highly adjustable seats that provide excellent comfort. The Mercedes-Benz GLS450 isn鈥檛 quite as nice, and the Cadillac Escalade doesn鈥檛 come close to being as opulent as the Range Rover鈥檚 cabin even in its top trim levels. Only the Lincoln Navigator Black Label rivals the Range Rover in terms of interior material quality and finish.
The new Land Rover Defender has made its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The 2020 Defender will come in six models (Defender, Defender S, Defender SE, Defender HSE, Defender X and Defender First Edition) with four Accessory Packs upgrades available. Each pack brings more equipment, starting with the Explorer Pack with its off-road-centric additions like wheel arch protection and a roof rack. The Adventure Pack is aimed towards outdoor enthusiasts and campers, adding a trunk-mounted air compressor, a pressurized water reservoir for washing, and a seat-integrated backpack. The Country Pack adds portions of the previous two options into a less specialized option while the Urban Pack adds items for the concrete jungle. Standard equipment on the 2020 Land Rover Defender 110 includes four-wheel drive with Rover鈥檚 Terrain Response 2 system, a wade-sensing feature for water fording, and some hefty maximum payload capacities. 2 seating arrangement, an expansion that replaces rear cargo space with stow-able third row and added front-row center jump seat. Payload maxes out in the Defender 110 at 1,984 pounds (900 kg) with a dynamic roof load capacity of 370 lb (168 kg), and a towing capacity of 8,201 lb (3,719 kg).
