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Tumbleweed Rover for Marathon Martian Journeys
An anonymous reader writes "A prototype Mars rover, the Tumbleweed, has completed its 40 mile trek across the Antarctic, driven only by winds even in rough terrain over eight days. While the current rovers are designed for flat, equatorial regions, the tumbleweed design is geared to cover longer distances across what many consider the more interesting and dangerous polar regions on Mars."
I built a robot for a class once. And after completing it, I have much more respect for the people trying to design these things.
It's not so hard to make a robot that works. It's all the possible problems that make it hard. And if your robot happens to be on Mars when it breaks... you're SO screwed!
All the little things... unanticipated terrain, sensor malfunction, wheel gets stuck... the list is endless. Of course, during my project I kept to the smooth carpet and just moved the robot whenever something happened. But these guys have got their work cut out for them.
No pressure, its just a 3 million dollar robot!
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
I would imagine the lack of directional control would make this unit perform very generic atmospheric readings/mapping whatever. What does that solve that an orbiter and beagle type unit combo couldn't?
Or even relatively shallow craters? These would appear to end such missions prematurely. Is the plan, then, to drop multiple such probes (IE, faster/cheaper)?
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
I like this part: "[image of] The spherically-wheeled rover [tricycle with 3 ballon wheels] that inadvertently gave birth to the idea for a giant tumbleweed ball. When one of the wheels broke loose during a test, it traveled across the terrain only too well."
Table-ized A.I.
There are many interesting designs that take "unguided" tours of terrain. These include the "tumblers" like the one pictured, as well as a number of "glider" or "floater" designs. The gliders are basically "hover around over a spot and go where the winds take you" approach. They often have a *little* bit of navigation capability (but are mostly at the mercy of winds). The balloon idea is pretty smart. Basically, attach a bunch of sensors along a serpentine "spine" that is attached to a helium balloon. During the day, the balloon warms up and the rover flies to a new destination (wherever the winds take it). Sensors useful in the air (radar, atmospheric, etc.) take over. At night, the helium cools and it touches back down. Sensors useful on the ground (spectrometers, RATs, etc.) now fire up. Brilliant idea because of the simplicity and cost effectiveness.
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For news, status, updates, scientific info, images, video, and more, check out:
(AXCH) 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers - News, Status, Technical Info, History.
"Oh, look...there went that interesting outcropping we could have explored. Wait, wait...no, wind still hasn't died down. Damn this is the third time around the planet and we still haven't gathered any useful data."
What do you do for solar panels when the thing is round? Could a round panel-covered object still gather sufficient power to run the computers that will be inside, or is the wind supposed to power that as well? Off to read the article... =)
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
Nasa's site has a lot more info, especially if you do a search on their site for 'tumbleweed'.
Some early research
Video from June 2001.
J