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From: hmp@cive.ri.cmu.edu (Henning Pangels)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Subject: Re: CM Ambler Rover
Summary: AMBLER: Why is it so big?
Message-ID: <9547@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 6 Jun 90 14:38:45 GMT
References: <3708@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> <95816@philabs.Philips.Com> <5836@micro-ix.UUCP>
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Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
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Aside from everything else that's been said regarding size, one advantage of
a large exploration robot is that it supports some serious scientific
experiments. Core-boring, cutting/splitting of rocks, or simply picking up
objects that are of the size of a football have all been mentioned as
desirable capabilities. Remember, the objective is a sample-return mission,
so just running around the surface of the planet and transmitting pictures
isn't quite good enough. Even retrieving a bunch of small rocks and dust
samples doesn't tell the whole story.

-- 
Henning Pangels        Research Programmer        Field Robotics Center
ARPAnet/Internet: hmp@cive.ri.cmu.edu             Robotics Institute
(412) 268-7088                                    Carnegie-Mellon University