This looks cool, but won't these get stuck in ditches, or small craters?
Also, Mars's atmosphere is supposedly quite thinner isn't it? So it would require more wind than on Earth to push these things, no?
Also, Mars's atmosphere is supposedly quite thinner isn't it? So it would require more wind than on Earth to push these things, no?
The lower gravity might compensate for the pressure in the test being about twice as high.
Results showed that wind speeds of 9–10 meters per second were sufficient to set the rover in motion over a range of Mars-like terrains, including smooth and rough surfaces, sand, pebbles and boulder field."
The force caused by the wind acting on the rovers are 50% of Mars, if you are correct, so I'd expect twice the "sail" force pushing the CG of the rover versus its current contact "point" on Mars as in the experiment. 2/0.38 = 2.5x the moving force. When the CG is pushed forward, the whole thing rotates, and the rover advances to a new contact point.
Of course, we're talking about things like wind velocity and surface texture as "constants" here, but yeah: the thing should move.