[dr_orpheus]

Somewhat, it will definitely tip the needle for those who are on the fence about their risk posture with radiation. But the surface of Mars is by no means the worst radiation environment. For overall dose levels, the surface of Mars is about 2.5x worse than being on the ISS [0], which is in general a very low radiation environment.

If you look at slide 15 of this presentation [1] "TID (Total Ionizing Dose) Mitigation", the ISS would be in the "LEO-LOW" category on the curve. When you start looking at the MEO and GEO orbits you have to start contending with the trapped proton and electrons of the radiation belts. Not a whole lot in MEO outside of the various GNSS constellations, but tons of things in GEO that still have doses that are orders of magnitude more.

[0] https://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/topten.cfm?topten=10#:~:text=Mars....

[1] https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1524958

Edit: Also worth noting that the radiation environment for Single Event Effects (SEE) is going to be comparatively worse than the total dose when compared to the ISS. SEE are cause by individual high energy particles. This will be worse on Mars due to the lack of magnetic field. So from that perspective it is quite a bit worse. However, if you go look at my other comments in this thread you can see that they specifically did SEE testing and not TID testing on the Qualcomm chips.

[robviren]

For what it is worth I am confident Sony camera modules can handle about 24-48 hours in the typical boiling water reactor for visual inspections. We had to replace them constantly. Near the fuel band it looked like Mardi gras with all the radio caused static.

Does anyone know what type of camera they used on the rovers.