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Mars Rovers At Smithsonian And Exploratorium Now
Illah Nourbakhsh writes "From the makers of the Palm Pilot Robot Kit comes our newest thing. If you live in SF or in DC you can go to the biggest science centers of them all, the Air & Space Museum or the Exploratorium and interact with miniature Mars rovers we've put in Mars yards there. The robots take panoramic images and track and test rocks, so it's no remote-control toy. All Linux on-board, using a prototype single-board arm-based robotics board (the Intel Stayton). The website 'gallery' has pictures of all of the rover's parts, including the Linux processor and the mechanicals. Gallery also has several videos. We've built 20 of these 'bots and they're in DC, San Francisco and Augusta, Georgia." If these were in toy stores ...
So, I guess the obvious question is: Where can I buy one? Followed up by: Are you going to Open source it?
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Let's hope the actual landers make it safely to the surface of Mars, so these models don't end up being sad reminders of the science that could have been.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
I've heard alot about these models, and they're supposed to be spactacular. Incredibly accurate. There's a great collection of interviews (audio) with project scientists available at http://www.planetary.org/audio/planetaryradio.html . Really worth a listen.
I called the Exploratorium. They said they were _supposed_ to receive one of these, but so far it's late checking in, and they're losing hope it'll actually arrive.
The robots take panoramic images and track and test rocks,
"Still there... yep, still there. The rock has not moved."
Check it out, those photos on the first page of the link are notthumbnails! Yes folks, they are the full 330K jpegs, merely resized to the thumbnail size. Don't you hate that? I thought that habit died in 1999.
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Hey, I like some of their nomenclature for the parts. They have got a "Cerebellum board", which I presume controls aspects of stability or movement?
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Did the check the back room? Maybe the Beagle is hiding in there.
Damon,
http://actionPlant.com
Yes, this is real. You can actually control your own rover through the web, and see live images. These aren't replica's, but made of lego's to drum up interest in the "Red Rover Goes to Mars" bit sponsored by The Planetary Society, a group over 20 years old that advocates space exploration and planetary science, founded (in part) by the great Carl Sagan.
Go to http://www.redrovergoestomars.org/Rrsites.php and control your own rover!
Well now I know what I am going to ask Santa for next year.
"I'm not high, just stupid" --JY
The current rovers can travel, in expected conditions, an average of 100 meters a day. The mission is expected to last 90 days. Multiply them, and you get 9 kilometers. They won't go that far, but it's impressive range. Where do you get these 'facts', anyway?
I think they should capture more realism by just advertising the Mars Explorer models. Then, when all the kids come to play with them, they would just have the empty display. Maybe the control panel could display, "SEARCHING FOR SIGNAL...". Does anyone else think that the problems with getting something on Mars kinda gives validity to the whole "we didn't really land on the moon" conspiracy theory?
*Get your own RC models of the Mars rovers for you and your child - great deal now...
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The Tech museum in San Jose had an exhibit like this (about 3 years ago?). They had a little rover model running around in a simulated Martian crater. Visitors could control the rover remotely through a closed circuit TV and joystick setup. It was quite fun.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Please!!
Those who can do... Those who can't get a certification from Cisco or Microsoft.
What is a "Linux Processor"?
Warden: There's no Air in Space
Homer: There's an Air and Space Museum!
I especially like the pictures of the assembly process.
I need to do something like that.
-John Fenley
Mars probes are usual debris strewn across the surface of the red planet.
"Still there... yep, still there. The rock has not moved."
It's actually to detect if there's life. If the rock moved, either a)it wasn't a rock, or b)a little green man moved it! Come on man, pay attention.
Please help metamoderate.
Augusta Ga. Is a nice afternoon drive from where I am. I had no idea there was a musem there. Anyone know anythig about this? Got a poiter to a web sit? Phone number? name?
nix is very simple, but it takes a genius to understand the simplicity. (Dennis Ritchie) ~
picked/being held hostage, buy phonIE softwar gangster execrable?
talk about lack of 'moderation'. that's when too fauxking much is never enough.
Feed the hungry people, and what happens? Their number just increases and they keep on being hungry. The solution is education, not free food.
Space exploration is not useless; actually, it should be the primary, driving goal of all mankind. Without space colonization, the human race will eventually perish, most likely due to a meteor hit. No billions of dollars spent on feel-good stuff will change that.
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
Most of those helpless millions you speak of are right where they deserve to be.
There will always be poor, hungry people. Might as well get some exploration done and solve the world's overpopulation problem at the same time!
Why is it that we can brainwash the masses into thinking that it's okay for us to spend hundreds of billions on military crap while ignoring the homeless people living in the streets and at the YMCA?
No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it. (T. Pratchett)
It's really a shame this isn't part of the Space Exhibit that's currently in Seattle and slated to tour the country for the next four years. I'd love to see these little fellas getting greater exposure; I only make it to the Smithsonian once every ten years.
I think this is a new, autonomous exhibit, not the remote control ones from other museums.
The Houston Space Center has the remote control one, which me and the wife visited when we were on a pilgramage to Ikea (damn your fashionable and reasonably priced Nordic furniture! Why won't you build a store more than 50 miles from a port!).
I played with the joystick part, which allowed two rovers to compete to roll a ball into a goal. It was a somewhat low-res screen, and I thought it was a computer game ("why did they bother with 3D models if they were only going to show a nearly top-down view?"). It was only later that I saw the real models, and realized that I was remote controlling the robots. It was a very strange feeling, like realizing that something you read about in a Sci-Fi book has suddenly come to life.
If you go to the Houston Space Center, try to find one of the many discounts to get in. My Southwest Airlines frequent flyer card got me in cheaply, even though I drove to Houston.
If people would actually read the article linked to, it mentions at the bottom (yes, a place most people never make it to) that this project will be open-sourced in January.
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - Tennyson
The robots ARE at the Exploratorium and are working great thanks to the fine folks at CMU. The "personal" rovers will go on display this weekend coinciding with our webcasts. See http://www.exploratorium.edu/mars for details.
Peace.
I think it's obvious that Martians have been swatting our probes all along. What other explanation could there be?
Campaign finance reform is national security.
I refuse to visit the place ever since (about 4 years ago) I went and saw a skeleton they had, with a very clear sign explaining the difference in the number of ribs between men and women. Presumably having to do with the Garden of Eden mythos.
It would be interesting to put the rover in a closed room so it can't be seen, then add about 10 to 20 minutes of delay each way from its camera to the user and from the controls back to the rover.
The real rover was not controlled from earth in a continuous way because of the time delay - sets of commands were uploaded infrequently.
NASA finally has made a practical technology: Remote Up-skirt viewers
"Honest officer, the probe thought it was on another planet."
Table-ized A.I.
"The solution is education, not free food."
DING DING DING! We have a winner!
We have a population issue anyway... I don't mean to sound insensitive but let 'em die and legalize abortion. For the future of the human race we need to start doing something NOW!!