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I read the lander/rover has “a cooling fan” for its computer components, is this fan similar to the one in my machine at home keeping my CPU “cool”?

April 26, 2017components Computer cool fan lander Machine read Rover similar

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I read the lander/rover has “a cooling fan” for its computer components, is this fan similar to the one in my machine at home keeping my CPU “cool”?

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This fan was added to the SIM rover (the rover you see in the MarsRoom) to enable continuous operation under room temperature and outdoors (Los Angeles) conditions. The Warm Electronics Box (WEB) which houses the CPU and other electronics on all versions of the rover is an excellent insulator designed to trap heat generated by the electronics. This trapped heat soaks out during the night on Mars so that through this passive thermal device (insulation), the electronics are maintained within the WEB between +40degC to -40degC while externally the rover on Mars experiences a temperature range of 0degC to -110degC. The WEB on the SIM rover was designed just like the Mars rover (Sojourner) WEB. Hence there is a need for support cooling when the external temperature range in the Marsroom or outdoors is between +40degC to + 10degC. –Jake Matijevic, Microrover Flight Experiment Manager Back to the top of the page.