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Japanese 'Minerva' Robot Lost in Space
space_weasel writes "A little Japanese robot that was supposed to land on the surface of an asteroid has accidentally been flung into space by its mothership. New Scientist Space reports that the accident occurred as the data link with the spacecraft was being switched from an station in Japan to one in Australia. Mission controllers still plan to punch a hole in the asteroid and collect samples, which will be returned to Earth."
Dammit, they can't even handoff mission control without losing the probe, and they still think it's OK to go around punching holes in ancient celestial objects? What if they miss?
--
make install -not war
Perhaps, but someone failed it when it came to the hazard analysis on that spacecraft...
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
and I get stressed when my ping hops over 50ms while playing online action games. I couldn't imaging a 16minute lag.
wonder if it might still be able to land on a few chairs thrown from Redmond some days ago.
How do you say "Blame Dr. Smith" in Japanese?
Must have been a bug-eyed anime probe that made a high pitched squealing sound as it was "flung off into space" by the mothership...
...is, after roaming the galaxy for 200 years collecting information, it will come back to Earth to destroy us.
Dark Reflection
robot 1 : target acquired, beginning landing sequence...
robot 2 : roger that, beginning land... OH LOOK A STAR!
[all robots turn towards the star]
robot 3 : OOHHHHHHHHHHH PRETTY!!!!
'Still, he admits that mission controllers do not fully understand how to deal with the spacecraft's motion after the periodic thruster firings' Then why are they mission controllers????
I wonder how, exactly, the software being used had the capability to allow this to happen. Even if the problem were procedural, I would think that, on transfer of control, you would lock down all non-essential functions - like "flinging" payloads into space - until control has been successfully handed off.
Of course, this is all pointless conjecture on my part - it may have been a hardware malfunction, for all I know. It would be interesting to analyze things like these. Having only a few years real-world experience, I doubt my programming skills would be worth a damn, but I would be thrilled just to have the opportunity to read the code they use before hand. Generally I don't volunteer my time to OSS-like programs, but this is one situation where I could easily see myself helping. Or trying to help, more like it.
Then again, by releasing it beforehand open source, someone else may very well be able to analyze the code and "steal" control of the probe/satellite/whatever-is-using-the-software, possibly using it for nefarious gain, or possibly just being a bunch of dicks. So this probably wouldn't pan out. Still, a nerd can dream.
If Star Trek has taught us nothing else, it is that probes lost in space are a bad thing. And the fact that it's Japanese means that it's definitely going to come back and go apeshit.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
When working with the USA, spacecraft get lost due to forgetting to switch between metric and common units.
When working with Australia, spacecraft get lost due to forgetting that their maps of the universe are up-side-down.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Exonature is as cruel as mothernature herself. Obviously, the mothership began to ovulate, and, sensing a potential mate nearby, cruelly cast off her young to fend for itself.
"Game over space cadet"
During this 40-minute antenna change, information about the spacecraft's vertical motion was unavailable to ground controllers.
For a country which prides itself as being at the forefront of robotics technology, this is rather surprising. The latency inherent in space communication over great distances is the primary reason for using intelligent robots in space. If the probe was sufficiently intelligent, it would perform its tasks without supervision from ground control. I hope they (including NASA and the ESA) put a lot more effort into automating their space probes in the future.
Thinking of the poor little robot's feelings? It's just been flung into deep space by its mother. Most of us would resent being kicked out of the basement. Now it's definately going to come back and bite us on the ass.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Reavers.
The probe was named Minerva, after the Roman goddess of wisdom and skill. The mothership is named Hayabusa, after the world's fastest flying bird.
Unfortunately, the mission controller was named Bob, after the Roman god of lazy eyes and uncoordinated pitching.
Danger Will Robbinson! DANGER!
NJ Local Music Scene
"Haro, genki. Haro, genki-nai."
It is a sad day indeed...
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
This was a series of truly bad rolls of the dice. Two of their three stablizers failed, they had bad altimeter data because "the slope of the asteroid's surface had apparently caused the altimeter to misjudge... estimates of the craft's altitude," and then they got below 100 meters while the antenna switchover was happening. They sent the separate command without realizing the thrusters to maintain minimum altitude had just fired, because of that break in communications. So the article says, though it's not a sterling example of great science writing, I'll give you that.
The "mission officials are saying "Our readiness was not so complete," to their credit, but it's not like they're complete incompetents. More like they're pushing the technology: the altimeter hadn't ever been used before, for the obvious example.
Sort of fits the cheaper/faster model of robotic exploration. You have your hits and your misses. This isn't a Cassini Cadillac of a probe.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Hmm. Japanese space robot goes bananas, attacks other Japanese space robot, hurls it off into deep space... I've seen that before somewhere.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
That wasn't very motherly.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Mork : "Fly, be free!" [SPLAT]
Maybe Steve Ballmer was on the ship. It would certainly explain why the ship suddenly threw the probe into space.
"Mission controllers still plan to punch a hole in the asteroid and collect samples, which will be returned to Earth."
Robot or not, eventually "samples" will get to earth...
Mission controllers John and Maureen Robinson briefly left the control room to attend to an unforseen family crisis involving their children, Judy, William and Penny. Mission scientist Dr. Zachary Smith was left in charge of the lander. When chief mission controller Major Don West came into the control room an hour later to relieve Dr. Smith, the probe was found to have drifted off the asteroid after faulty commands were sent from one of the mission computers. Investigators later found a giant magnet stuck to the computer. Dr. Smith's only comment on the mission was that the robot was a "clattering craft of clinking computerized clumps"!
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
to recover that probe.
This looks like a job for Gekiganger III!
You'd sure know more if you went to the (somewhat unclear) article, which would obviate the need for lots of your conjecture.
The main probe has been going on one of its three "stablizing wheels," the other two having failed. There's a sidebar link in the article to an earlier one about those failures. Mission controllers have been burning extra fuel keeping the thing at the right distance from the asteroid, facing the asteroid, and with its solar panels facing the sun; they already had that against them. Then the altimeter data they were getting was bad, they were closer than they thought, because some combination of the laser altimeter (previously untested) and the slope of the asteroid's surface confused the data.
They realized they were within 100 meters and had to send the detach command while the antenna switch was happening. The blackout prevented them from realizing a "keep above minimum altitude" engine thrust had just gone off.
This is much more of a reflection of this model of probe: it's cheaper, it's faster to develop, and there are going to be failures like the Beagle and this.
(Personally I do think there'd be a big gain if, before and after missions like this, the code got reviewed. I doubt very much that hackers in Idaho would have foreseen the failed stabilizers, the workaround, the potential for misjudging the altimeter data, and the combination of the blackout and the necessity for the release command. But in terms of intellectual freedom, it'd be a nice statement, and the Post Mortems would sure feature a lot of people asking Feynman-esque questions about icewater and O-rings.)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
At just 10cm, why didn't they send up more then one of these robots? The bots could have even colonized once they got there...
Mojo Jojo ... work(s) for bananas
D'ohhhhh! That is a misconception!
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
Now it will be lost for 300 years and come with a name like "vger" and try to contact it's maker
oh yeah i tell you i saw it foretell
I told you not to pinch your mother there!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Isn't Bob an especially annoying of in-house developed Microsoft software. Maybe the final version of the source code to Bob was on the robot and this was the only way to get rid of it forever!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
They lost Minerva??? But she's so ... so ... minky!
(preparing to get modded (-1, Furry)...)
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
Especially in space.
Someone set up them the bomb.
Personally I find this a bit sad; it would have been great to see the little thing in action, hopping all over another world investigating things. I mean, these projects take years to design and get there - it's not like they can send another one tomorrow.
Is there some reason why we can't make these things tougher or more redundant?
A-Bomb
As a politician instead of a scientist, the first thing that came to mind when I read this story were the faces of the people who made the budget for that robot. They just heard that their spacecraft flung a $20million bag of money into the great unknown. I imagine that feels just about the same as getting kicked square in the nuts.
I am and always will be a stereotype, because who in their right mind prefers mono?
As I am sure it may have been posted before, didn't Minerva have some type of visual lock-on/homing mechanism that will automatically find the largest rock nearby and move towards it? I guess it is not that sophisticated, or it just missed its trajectory due to the 40-minute atennae switch.
My other theory is that Minerva (feeling lonely, isolated and missing her father) just went on to Jupiter to say hi to her Dad.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Ffffuuuukkkkooooovvvvvv!!!!!!
They went for the little sheild circle thing and accidently hit the button for hyperspace. The little triangle ship reapeared brieftly but was shot out of the sky by a small saucer shaped imagine with little dots.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
...and prepare to jettison the warp core. On a more serious note, ultimately it comes down to the tradeoff between weight, space, and payload. Making redundant or more robust (usually means more massive) systems generally means less payload mass (instruments) would be available - assuming they did the smart thing and maximized the total spacecraft weight to begin with. In addition, there may be other constraints with the geometric volume of the launch vehicle, that preclude some solutions. ed
" we are receiving a transmisson from our lost space robot" (everyone at mission control goes silent) ARE YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US
Comment removed based on user account deletion
AIBO!! Go fetch!!
Go fetch, boy! Go fetch the little robot!
If the g'vt kept the data on you that google does you'd better believe you'd be calling it "doing evil"
Would be of the robot zinging into the part unknown followed by a star like shine of where it is heading followed by a sound.....
Maybe even a text message from robot reading "Yanna Kanjiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!"
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
you must be new here, organized physical sport has no place on /.
All pride is become evaporation due to the poor work quality of these shameful space workers. We must now do what is right and true, and move on with our heavy-set heads but awful hearts made of pewtrid filth.
I suggest you read Slashdot
Japanese 'Minerva' Robot Lost in Space
Danger, Will Yamamoto!
Remember folks, slashdot doesn't have a -1 "disagree" moderation!
They should have used TCP!
I saw a comparative size of the Minerva, and it makes me wonder: with it being so small, couldn't they just fly 2 or 3 of them on board? You are already firing a rocket anyways!
Here you can see Minerva (and it's cover) saying "so long and thanks for all the batteries" (In japanese, of course). Also there are pictures of Hayabusa taken from Minerva (first 2)
I, for one, welcome our new Japanese robotic overlords.
So, will people start trying to remotely install Linux on it?
...but one might realize that from an American's PoV (the poster was almost certainly American) imperial units ARE "common"?
I'm sorry, but just because we don't subscribe to your particular social engineering doesn't make us bad. I work for a German firm and *constantly* get bugged by the question "why don't you just switch to metric - it's so much simpler!"
First of all, I point out that US firms and people HAVE switched to metric in many of the sciences and international transport, where it IS simpler.
Further, the "metric" system is NOT universally "simpler". The imperial system with its base-12 feet and fractions is in many ways superior (HERESY!) in the practicalities of everyday application. For example:
- If I have an inch standard, I can go fairly easily down to an accurate 1/32 or even 1/64 of an inch. Without a ruler with accurately scribed gradations, can you measure me 0.396875 cm?
- a base 12 foot is wonderful for general use. 12 is a number that can be divided by 2, 3, 4, and their multiples very easily, and still end up in integer units again without equipment. The decimal metric system gets icky when you try to divide anything by anything except 5 and 2.
-Styopa
The German version, not the crappy english one:
Völlig losgelöst
von der Erde
schwebt das Raumschiff
völlig schwerelos
This is funny all by itself. ;-)
It's also why I believe every vessel sent into space should have its own little ion drive as a backup. (If the robot was supposed to land on the asteroid without the mothership, then I would count it as a vessel.) I don't know what technical problems it would cause or how much it would cost, but I doubt the mothership could've propelled the little robot with so much force that it couldn't recover with a few days/weeks using of continuous acceleration. Unless of course, it smashed into another asteroid before it had a chance to slow down or turn around.
Ryo-ohki when you need one? Who wouldn't want a cute little pet that turns into a space ship when flung into the air?
(Bonus points if you can guess the reference)
Check out The Open Source Math Project! Help out
is how many tentacles the demon-alien that rides the probe back to Earth will have? I postulate 23!
"Danger, Will Robinson!"
Gravity will eventually pull the robot somewhere, it's just a question of where. if it lands on another asteroid, they might be able to just make the best of the situation...
"Hello 911? I just tried to toast some bread, and the toaster grew an arm and stabbed me in the face!"
Yay! Time for a sequel to The Dish: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0205873/
I've heard asteroid landing was successfully tried once, with the craft which wasn't even designed for landing!
This is just a test.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
schedules a critical task like launching a robot during a data link switch?? Couldn't wait a minute so the change was complete?
... in the quaint little town of Redmond, Washington instead of anywhere in Japan! Did the guys at JPL *ever* screw up that bad? Ever?
Where does you bible say that? Mine is silent on orbits. Other than a few times where the sun stands still in the sky or moves backwords, but those give no clue how the orbits work - or even if there is an orbit.
Yea, poor Mazinger Z, he would be crying by now.... uh...no... is only oil from the refrigeration system... (FMI (For Moderators Information): Minerva was a robot that appeared in the Mazinger Z series...alongside with Mazinger, until the robot overheated and disabled itself....droping tears(oil) from her(uh?) eyes... )