Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!percy!parsely!bucket!leonard
From: leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Mars rovers
Message-ID: <1827@bucket.UUCP>
Date: 19 Dec 89 07:36:17 GMT
References: <8912080234.AA12222@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov>
Organization: Rick's Home-Grown UNIX; Portland, OR.
Lines: 24


[long argument for getting around the time-lag and AI problems of
a Mars rover by slowing it down deleted]

Fine, the rover is creeping along at the feet feet per hour that you
suggest is safe. Now something unexpected happens. The surface shifts.
(loose rocks hidden by dust, a dust pocket, whatever]

The rover *must* make a real time response. If it isn't autonomous, it
can't. You can handle some things be designing in recovery gear (like
those levers for righting it that you mentioned) but the odds are
against you. What do you do it it manages to "high center" itself?

or if it is traversing a slope and starts to slip?

I'll agree that your rover will work on Mars the day after it has
operated for a year with only a time delayed radio link for support
in Antarica....  (if it wasn't for rain and floods, I'd have suggested
a desert)
-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.
Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Short