{"id":376030,"date":"2026-04-12T14:49:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T14:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/376030\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T14:49:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T14:49:24","slug":"a-mercury-rover-could-explore-the-planet-by-sticking-to-the-terminator-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/376030\/","title":{"rendered":"A Mercury Rover Could Explore The Planet By Sticking To The Terminator"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>The planet Mercury in true color. (Credit: NASA<\/a>)<\/p>\n

With multiple rovers currently scurrying around on the surface of Mars to continue a decades-long legacy, it can be easy to forget sometimes that repeating this feat on other planets that aren\u2019t Earth or Mars isn\u2019t quite as straightforward. In the case of Earth\u2019s twin \u2013 Venus \u2013 the surface conditions are too extreme to consider such a mission. Yet Mercury might be a plausible target for a rover, according to a study<\/a> by [M. Murillo] and [P. G. Lucey], via Universe Today\u2019s coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The advantages of putting a rover\u2019s wheels on a planet\u2019s surface are obvious, as it allows for direct sampling of geological and other features unlike an orbiting or passing space probe. To make this work on Mercury as in some ways a slightly larger version of Earth\u2019s moon that\u2019s been placed right next door to the Sun is challenging to say the least.<\/p>\n

With no atmosphere it\u2019s exposed to some of the worst that the Sun can throw at it, but it does have a magnetic field at 1.1% of Earth\u2019s strength to take some of the edge off ionizing radiation. This just leaves a rover to deal with still very high ionizing radiation levels and extreme temperature swings that at the equator range between \u2212173 \u00b0C and 427 \u00b0C, with an 88 Earth day day\/night cycle. This compares to the constant mean temperature on Venus of 464 \u00b0C.<\/p>\n

To deal with these extreme conditions, the researchers propose that a rover might be able to thrive if it sticks to the terminator, being the transition between day and night. To survive, the rover would need to be able to gather enough solar power \u2013 if solar-powered \u2013 due to the Sun being very low in the sky. It would also need to keep up with the terminator velocity being at least 4.25 km\/h, as being caught on either the day or night side of Mercury would mean a certain demise. This would leave little time for casual exploration as on Mars, and require a high level of autonomy akin to what is being pioneered today<\/a> with the Martian rovers.<\/p>\n

Top image: the planet Mercury with its magnetic field. (Credit: A loose necktie<\/a>, Wikimedia)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The planet Mercury in true color. (Credit: NASA) With multiple rovers currently scurrying around on the surface of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-376030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}