Could the Tumbleweed Rover Dominate Mars?

astroengine writes "Mars has been visited by orbiters, landers and rovers, but could the future of Martian exploration be inspired by a wind-blown sphere? NASA and other research institutions have been developing the Mars Tumbleweed rover for the last decade, but with the help of the Planetary Science Institute, the Tumbleweed is now vying for some serious funding to further develop the technologies required. Although the Tumbleweed would be wholly dependent on the prevailing winds on the Martian surface, the lightweight and relatively cheap design could lead the way for a 'swarm' of independent Tumbleweeds to explore vast regions of the planet (video link). In 2003 and 2004, NASA even tested an inflatable Tumbleweed prototype on Greenland and Antarctica — it traversed hundreds of miles with ease, continually relaying location and environmental data."

Comments

Frequently asked question at JPL:

[blind biker]

"OK guys, where the F*** are we now?"

(due to the huge communication lag between Mars and Earth, rovers are controlled by giving a set of commands, and then checking the result the next day (or next Sol, to be exact))

Re:Frequently asked question at JPL:

[TheJokeExplainer]

(due to the huge communication lag between Mars and Earth, rovers are controlled by giving a set of commands, and then checking the result the next day (or next Sol, to be exact))

Hey! That was my job!

Re:Frequently asked question at JPL:

[JokeExplainerXplainr]

Hey! That was my job!

Parent is, of course, referring to the joke that he is the Joke Explainer and that it is his job to explain jokes.

Re:Frequently asked question at JPL:

[JokeExplainerXplainr]

Whooooooosh!!!

Re:Frequently asked question at JPL:

[TheJokeExplainer]

Parent is, of course, referring to the sound the joke made as it went past grandparent's head.

Maybe he just didn't see it.

He is, after all...

The blind biker.

Re:Frequently asked question at JPL:

[TapeCutter]

"a new conspiracy theory could be born every second!"

Youtube has got that covered, no need to go to mars.

Re:Frequently asked question at JPL:

[JokeExplainerXplainr]

YYEEEAAAHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Re:Two problems

[The_mad_linguist]

Yeah, that's a job for google streetview.

A slight design flaw

[Anonymous Coward]

Day one the tumble weed rover heroically rolls across the Martian terrain. Day two the rover discoveries a previously unknown Martian crater. Day three examines bottom of crater, day four same, day five same, ..., day 365 rover celibrates it's first year on Mars from the bottom of it's newly discovered crater.

We demand bouncing -

[RevWaldo]

We demand bouncing, followed by rolling, followed by rolling of the third type.

Re:Mod Parent Up!

[jimbolauski]

Fox news is simply the opposite of CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and ABC news the difference is that liberals have many places to get their propaganda while conservatives have 1 and since 40% of the population consider themselves conservatives to 20% liberal a single network that caters to these beliefs will do much better(see Oberman's ratings).