1320stang said:
Reen, I notice your not using the waxed string like they used on the rover.
Working in telecommunications for a while, I had to help swap out some power supplies (24v) in some cell sites. They used waxed string to tie all the wiring together. Thought it was wild they didn't use cable ties, but the guy I was helping was so swift in using the string, I think he could tie it with that faster than I could put a cable tie on it.
Well, here's a tangent, but why not...
The rovers are packed with ultra-sensitive sensors and optics, so a primary concern is outgassing of materials. See, if any material (adhesives, plastics, etc.) on the spacecraft outgasses (loses mass as vapor) in any way, it can contaminate optics and sensors, potentially rendering part of an $800 million project useless. Anything that can outgas immediately will when exposed to the vacuum of space. Thus, the string tying the cabling together isn't waxed string, but special non-outgassing, thermally stable, UV-proof miracle string. Yes, the cable techs can tie that stuff up in their sleep!
Another huge concern with operating a spacecraft on Mars is thermal cycling. The place goes from freezing-ass cold to almost comfortable on a daily basis, and the rovers are over 700 Martian days into the mission. Plastic cable ties would have become embrittled and failed long ago. I think there are spaceflight-qualified cable ties out there, but JPL doesn't use them. First, the string works great, is thin, pliable, etc.; second, it weighs a lot less than cable ties. This may sound funny, but every gram counts on spacecraft and you can tell even from that small pic that there would be a hell of a lot of cable ties on that thing.