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ESA Begins Mars Rover Tests In Chile

Posted by Soulskill on from the will-they-find-water?! dept.

Zothecula writes "The Atacama desert in Chile is so dry that parts of it are utterly devoid of life down to bacteria. That and its sandy, rock-strewn terrain makes it so similar to Mars that it's a perfect spot for ESA to trial its Sample Acquisition Field Experiment with a Rover (SAFER), which this week is carrying out tests related to navigation, remote control and the use of scientific instruments. The agency's goal is the latest in a series of tests to develop technologies and gain practical experience in anticipation of ESA's launch of the ExoMars rover to the Red Planet in 2018."

29 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Spotted by watcher-rv4 · · Score: 1

    Soon, on YouTube, a nerd will make a video comparing NASA Mars videos with videos from Chile.

    1. Re:Spotted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Soon we will discover if there is indeed water on Chile

    2. Re:Spotted by Incadenza · · Score: 3, Informative

      I know you are joking, but there is plenty of water in the Atacama: rivers that originate in the Andes. They either flow out in the sea (through canyons), in salt pans, or sometimes through a tube to the coastal towns.

  2. Why not just do it indoors? by Russ1642 · · Score: 2

    The Atacama is pretty inhospitable, especially for people trying to run these tests. They could recreate the conditions in a large indoor lab easily enough. All you need is rocks, sand, fans, and some dehumidifiers. I don't really get why they need to go to the Atacama.

    1. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by iggymanz · · Score: 2

      the terrain of indoor simulation would be small in extents and totally predictable. the 600 square miles of the Atacama doesn't have either problem

    2. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by Russ1642 · · Score: 1

      The rovers are painfully slow. They don't need 600 square miles to test them unless the tests last fifty years.

    3. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Informative

      heh, it's 600 miles long actually, 41,000 square miles.

      but you could drop them off in one place to test in sandy soil, another for small pebbles, another for large rocks, small hills, large hills, etc.

      much more than you can do in a room

    4. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by Sarten-X · · Score: 1

      I wonder what the price tag is to fill a large indoor space with enough sand for a good test. Don't forget we also need to pay for damage to the building from blowing sand everywhere and heating it up to uncomfortable temperatures. Then there's the price to clean it all back out for the next project.

      Compare that to some airfare, shipping, and sunscreen.

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    5. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      correct, it's 600 miles long

    6. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by Russ1642 · · Score: 1

      They'll be testing mars rovers for decades. Something the size of a football field (a standard unit of measurement in the States) would be fine and the cost wouldn't be prohibitive.

    7. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by Sarten-X · · Score: 1

      "They" are many different teams in many different places around the world, so they'll almost all be traveling anyway. Dumping a pile of sand in a building is just an unnecessary expense for no real benefit.

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    8. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by tedgyz · · Score: 1

      the terrain of indoor simulation would be small in extents and totally predictable. the 600 square miles of the Atacama doesn't have either problem

      To your point, we need the unpredictable variables. An indoor experiment would have too much control. In fact they have probably already done that.

      For example: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

      --
      "No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
    9. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by cusco · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Fill a building in California with sand and it's rapidly going to be full of microorganisms, even if you bake the dirt first. They fed dirt from the Atacama to the Viking lander that was kept on Earth, and it didn't find life.

      Fill a building with rocks and sand and it's all fluffy and aerated. Ground textures are nothing like real-world terrain. Hills can only be a few meters tall and steep slopes are very difficult to build without additives.

      That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are more reasons.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    10. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by Russ1642 · · Score: 1

      The main reason is that the team members like Chilean food. And it's hard to test the rover's Alpaca spit shield in an indoor test facility.

    11. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by sconeu · · Score: 1

      Are you saying that the Spanish Inquisition is hiding in the Atacama?

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    12. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by mapuche · · Score: 1

      "The Atacama is pretty inhospitable"

      No it isn't. Atacama desert has considerable amount of wild life, mine workers and tourists. I've been there as a back packer, and you can live there for a few weeks without problems in a shoestring budget.

    13. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by cusco · · Score: 1

      Depends on where in the Atacama you are. Some places don't even have microorganisms, where it hasn't really rained since the end of the ice age.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    14. Re:Why not just do it indoors? by fuzzywig · · Score: 1

      Which is exactly what they're going to do. (Although they do have a human on hand to operate the sample drill, I guess that instrument wasn't ready in time to go out to Chile)

  3. Pfft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Our rover's bigger.

    1. Re:Pfft by Sarten-X · · Score: 2

      Kerbal Space Program has taught me one thing well: Big rovers are ridiculously hard to put anywhere other than "just left of the launchpad".

      Advice for other KSP players: A 650-ton rover is not a good idea. Funny, perhaps, but not good.

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    2. Re:Pfft by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      It's not the size, but what you do with it. If they prove life on Mars, then ours will feel really puny.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    3. Re:Pfft by SleazyRidr · · Score: 1

      Well, from reading the comments here, I've determined that it has a drill (which has to be operated manually.)

      --
      Is 1563649 a prime number?
    4. Re:Pfft by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      It appears the Soviets already did that.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    5. Re:Pfft by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Or perhaps the US also:

      http://news.discovery.com/space/we-may-have-already-colonized-mars-120831.htm

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  4. knock-off by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    if you looked at it, you are thinking the same thing i am: this rover is a knock-off of our previous rover model.

    also, ours is bigger than yours.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  5. Antarctica as well by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    They should put this in Antarctica for a time during the winter. Mars will get much colder than Antarctica, so, it is at least better than Chile's desert.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  6. Re: those spitty alpacas by macraig · · Score: 1

    Those Martian alpacas are mean buggers, aren't they? They'd just as soon spit on you as give your rover the time of day.

  7. I sell these for $500 by spiritplumber · · Score: 1

    you can control them anywhere you get any sort of cell phone reception, even horrible. I gave one to the Kerbal Space Program guys even. www.f3.to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQYQWzRYJJs

    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
  8. Re:I sell these for $500 by Arancaytar · · Score: 1

    I don't even want to know what kind of roaming charges you'd be racking up on Mars.