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From: smith@sndpit.enet.dec.com (Willie Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.robotics,sci.space
Subject: Re: Request for Feedback on Proposed Lunar Analog Robotics Contest
Message-ID: <787@sousa.enet.dec.com>
Date: 7 Feb 91 15:51:55 GMT
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Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
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In article <20916@sri-unix.SRI.COM>, larson@snmp.sri.com (Alan Larson) writes...
> 
>  If you are going to require small size for the lunar robot contest,
>and limit the power sources to lunar capable ones, allowing wire
>connections or local visual observations is a bit imbalanced.
>If you are talking about the 3 second delay from earth based teleoperation,
>why aren't you including the difficulty of radio communications back
>to earth.  A quick check will discover that the video transmitter will
>suck a fair chunk of power over that range.
> 
>  It is probably more reasonable to simplify the requirements to only
>test the robotics (and possibly the AI) part, as the communications
>part could overwhelm the efforts of individuals or small groups.
> 
>	Alan

Oh, I don't think it's that difficult...  First off, each individual 
vehicle wouldn't have to have the power and antenna (and antenna pointing) 
capabilities to reach the earth.  They would only have to transmit as far 
as the nearest base, which could be as simple as the ship they landed in.  
Thus, each vehicle has to have a couple of watts each for the telemetry 
link and any number of TV channels.

Other repeaters could be scattered around the site of a lunar colony or 
teleoperations area, to cover areas in radio shadow or extend range.  these 
could even be small enough to be carried and emplaced by the teleoperated 
vehicles themselves.  In fact, with the addition of recievers, each vehicle 
could act as a repeater for others that got lost.  The only high-power 
links are those at the main base, or built into the lander.

Willie Smith
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