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NASA Gives Mars Rover Extra Smarts

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the rover-that-keeps-on-giving dept.

coondoggie writes "NASA today said it upgraded the software controlling its Mars Rover Opportunity to let it make its own decisions about what items like rocks and interesting red planet formations to focus its cameras on. The new system, which NASA uploaded over the past few months, is called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science, or AEGIS and it lets Opportunity's computer examine images that the rover takes with its wide-angle navigation camera after a drive, and recognize rocks that meet specified criteria, such as rounded shape or light color. It can then center its narrower-angle panoramic camera on the chosen target and take multiple images through color filters, NASA stated."

3 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. It's amazing to me by Digital+Pizza · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... that they can do a software upgrade of this kind adding a major feature such as this, remotely, without "bricking" it, and without the ability to add more CPU or RAM. Amazing job, guys!

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    1. Re:It's amazing to me by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Insightful

      that they can do a software upgrade of this kind adding a major feature such as this, remotely, without "bricking" it, and without the ability to add more CPU or RAM.

      What's more amazing to me is the fact that a multibillion dollar software company can't.

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  2. Re:What's This Line in the Release Notes About? by bakawolf · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Guess what's worse than linking to XKCD?