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Mars Rover's Epic Trek For the Crater Endeavor
Smivs writes "The BBC reports that NASA is to send its Mars rover Opportunity on a two-year trek to try to reach a crater called Endeavour.
The robot will have to move about 11km to get to its new target — a distance that would double what it has already achieved on the planet.
Endeavour is much bigger than anything investigated to date, and will allow a broader range of rocks to be studied. Detailed satellite imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will help pick out the best route ahead; and new software recently uploaded to Opportunity will enable the rover to make its own decisions about how best to negotiate large rocks in its path. Opportunity has just emerged from the 800m-wide Victoria Crater. Endeavour, by comparison, is 22km across."
That's about 11,000 inches, right? Shouldn't take that long.
Is crushing a suspect's child's testicles illegal?
John Yoo: "No, [if] the President thinks he needs to do that."
Godspeed, Opportunity!
Remember that Opportunity and Spirit are on their 5th year on the Martian surface. Their mission were initially planned to last no more than 3 months. Bravo!
Opportunity saw its first electrical spike in one of its motors recently - the same problem that has basically crippled Spirit.
This was described (8 paragraphs down) in this press release. That's why they got out of Victoria Crater post haste.
Of course, the terrain in Meridiani Planum is much more navigable than Gustav Crater, so even if they do lose a motor, they may still be able to make progress.
studying ... rocks!
ok, maybe only studying ... rocks ... rocks.
If you get an ... opportunity.
Allright I stop, I'm killing myself.
Do not trust this signature.
Wasn't Opporunity half-designed by kids as well? Props to NASA for getting our money's worth out of this thing. Talk about the little engine that could.
A human would take no more than a few hours to get there, on foot, much less with some vehicle. And would be able to do much more and diverse probings and experiments. And let's not forget that in those 2 years, the rover has a very high likelihood to break down.
So while human exploration of Mars may be expensive, it is probably much cheaper when comparing results.
I know the /. crowd has a strong, somewhat irrational animosity towards manned exploration. So I'll burn some karma, big deal :o)
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
That's 18.52 haads - http://www.erblist.com/abg/weightsmeasures.html
Don't they have a problem with dust collecting on the solar cells? Don't they wish they would have thought of a way to keep them really clean?
They were right - the revolution did not get televised. It was posted on YouTube instead. All in 120 characters. SLOOSH!
Since the standard conversion formula is to (X * 2) +30 all you have to do is (X / 2) -30 for US measurements.
That equals -24.5 so they've already been there and passed it!
Must've been a guy controlling the rover...we never ask directions.
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
Mars: the newest frontier.
These are the voyages of the rover Opportunity.
Its two-year mission: to explore strange new craters; to seek out new life and new land formations;
to boldly go where no robot has gone before!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
"new software recently uploaded to Opportunity will enable the rover to make its own decisions about how best to negotiate large rocks in its path"
What is the origin of that? I can speculate:
1) English origin: Very polite. You just don't go around the corner, you politely ask under what conditions it is allowed. "I beg your pardon, dear corner. Would it be inconvenient to you if we continue our way as indicated by you?
2) American origin: Don't take anything for granted. You may be sued by a corner before you know it. Call your lawyer. He'll do the negotiations. Oh boy, I hope he is tough, as this corner hasn't moved his position since I started talking to and yelling at it.
Bert
I suppose what I'm saying is that future rovers should be designed for as many possible contingencies
If you want a general purpose tool that can adapt to many scenario, send a human. (Also, go to the bank, you're going to need to make a biiiiiig withdrawl)
If you want to do science on a budget(which NASA has to do since it gets diddly squat for funding compared to certain other institutions) then you simply plan out what you think are probable tasks that'll be done, and design your robot to be able to do them cheaply and effectively. Trying to make a robot for "as many possible contingencies" will mean it will likely take a whole lot longer to design, to build, will cost more and all other things being equal, be more likely to break. The odds of something Going Wrong increases with the complexity of the device. Unless you plan on sending the rover with a bunch of spare parts and some arms to automatically perform repairs?
Just remember that the next time someone says that robots are just as capable as humans. A human crew could ride that far in a day, given an appropriate Mars buggy. Now, the cost to get those people and that buggy there is another question...
It's hard to believe these rovers have lasted as long as they have. Before, they had to plan in days in case anything went wrong, but now they're planning in years. These rovers have far exceeded all expectations and I wish the teams and rovers best of luck getting there.
to endeavor unto endeavor.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
And remember, these robots are performing far beyond their original expected lifespan!
(So much for our beagle 2 project :( - I am a brit)
But, seriously, well done NASA.
Have a nice day!
Both candidates say they are going to slash budget. When NASA's is cut, they'll dump their older projects.
Dude, it's around 2 feet long and being remotely controlled on a very long time delay and it's, what, several million km's away??
It can only go so far each day before it has to shut down, recharge, and wait for new driving instructions. That usually involves people looking at obstacles and coming up with a series of instructions for it to follow to move forward so it doesn't go crashing into a rock or into an unplanned crater.
It's not like they have detailed maps and a GPS tracking system you can just plug in the coordinates and have the auto-pilot start navigating there. This actually is some pretty challenging stuff.
Remember, they started designing these suckers some time in the 90's, and they've lasted several years longer than expected. Cut them some slack, it's not like your RC 4wd is going to fare very well on Mars or magically solve the control problem of piloting something that far away.
Man, you'd think plopping something onto a whole 'nother planet and navigating it around over fairly big (for the rover) distances was something that wasn't difficult. This falls well into the realm of completely bonus science for a mission which has been completely successful in terms of the engineering goals it did accomplish (and exceed).
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
...to the Endeavour crater.
- Yes indeed, if it's a fast rover.
- Fast rover? You've never heard of the Opportunity?
- No, should I have?
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
I'm thinking of a radio controlled 4wd you can get from a serious hobby shop that'll do at least 1km between charges!
I invite you to run it for 5 years in abrasive grit with zero intervention.
If you pay NASA enough, they'll send a faster rover with nuclear power. I don't know if NASA accepts donations, but the U.S. Treasury does. Start donating.
I think they should make a point of taking a full panoramic image every 10m or so. That way we can add that to the current data on mars and create a *really* nice VR version of that area. Being able to "walk" the same path as Opportunity in VR seems like it is a worthy PR and artistic goal and certainly wouldn't hurt the science of the mission either.
After years on Mars, with no resupply? You'd need advanced zombie technology for that, regular frozen mummies just don't have the staying power.
Wow, Mars rovers use Gentoo! :p
*tomato*
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
"Just remember that the next time someone says that robots are just as capable as humans."
Humans teams who send robots are more capable than human teams who send humans.
For example, one of those types of teams has carried out all exploration of the martian surface to date. The other type of team managed to fix their toilet in LEO, but it cost them a lot more money than all martian exploration to date.
"A human crew could ride that far in a day, given an appropriate Mars buggy."
Well, a robot could go that far in 30 seconds, given an appropriate robot; better acceleration tolerance. Sure, imaginary humans are more capable than real robots. I do in fact advocate sending humans any time you want to imagine exploring Mars; it makes much better fiction. If you want to do it for real though, sending humans is stupid.
This actually is some pretty challenging stuff.
You make it sound like it's rocket science or something on that level. Sheesh.
And the buggy that could drive the human could go twice as far if it left the human behind. Plus your question about cost is easy. For the cost of one human mission you could have ten buggy missions; each one learning from the last. Each individual mission would be less capable than one human mission, but the sum would be much much better. Human missions to Mars are like the late circuses in Rome. They put on a good show to distract the proletariat from the collapse of the empire.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
So what? Even ignoring the fact that it's not as good, you still need humans to control what the rover does. And that control is more effective when the human is nearby rather than several minutes away on another planet.
They should give the next one wings or a para-sail or something.
I thought Opportunity was due to have a bum wheel, like that of Spirit. They've discovered voltage spike patterns that match that of Spirit's wheel before it croaked. This would suggest that Oppy can only go about another mile before the wheel gives. While flat territory may not be a signif problem, Oppy has had problems getting stuck in sand dunes in its area even with good wheels. Getting out of sand traps with a stuck wheel is going to be an interesting challenge.
Table-ized A.I.
"Speed" is not really the bottleneck. The 4 bottlenecks are generally:
1. Bandwidth: If you move and study fast, then it creates more images and data to send back home. At the distance to Mars, bandwidth is slow and expensive.
2. Spectrometer speed: The spectrometers take at least a day to do their readings on rocks and soils most of the time. A more powerful spectrometer that's faster would require more power.
3. Human analysis. Operators and scientists like to study the images and data before deciding on new targets.
4. Safety. If you move too fast or hastily, you may encounter jams that you cannot get out of. Nobody cares if you wreck your Jeep in Arizona deserts, but to wreck a 700 million dollar probe is another thing.
Table-ized A.I.
The Mars buggy could do it all by itself. If long-distance exploration had been one of the main goals of S & O, they would be able to do it in a reasonable time. But it _was not_. Now, they are either running out of ideas for the immediate surroundings and/or want it to die in a scientific and relatively cheap way to free up resources.