Future rover: a big yellow ball?

ToSeek · #1 (**permalink**) 04-March-2004, 12:43 AM

Tumbleweed rover

JPL press release:

Quote:

Natalie Godwin (818) 354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Peter West (703) 292-8070
National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia

NEWS RELEASE: 2004-078 March 3, 2004

Tumbleweed Rover Goes on a Roll at South Pole

A balloon-shaped robot explorer that one day could search for evidence that water existed on other planets has survived some of the most trying conditions on planet Earth during a 70-kilometer (40-mile), wind-driven trek across Antarctica.

The tumbleweed rover, which is being developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., left the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on Jan. 24, and spent the next eight days rolling across Antarctica's polar plateau.

Along the way, the beach ball shaped device, roughly six feet in diameter, used the global Iridium satellite network to send information on its position, the surrounding air temperature, pressure, humidity, and light intensity to a ground station at JPL.

The test was designed to confirm the rover's long-term durability in an extremely cold environment, with an eye toward eventually using the devices to explore the martian polar caps and other planets in the solar system.

The final tumbleweed rover is envisioned as a lightweight, roughly 88-pound device that can serve multiple roles as an independent robotic explorer. The rover's design can allow it to act in turn as a parachute while descending through an atmosphere; an air bag on landing; and, ultimately, as an unmanned vehicle equipped with a package of scientific instruments.

The tumbleweed rover is based on concepts going back to the 1970's and has been pursued by several investigators at JPL. Dr. Alberto Behar, a robotics researcher in the robotic vehicles group recently deployed this prototype at the South Pole. "We are testing a new mode of rover transportation that uses the available environmental resources to give us an added edge to cover more ground using fewer on-board resources," said Dr. Behar. "This gives us the ability to use the precious cargo (on Earth) or payload (in space) mass for more applicable science instrumentation."

Even though the average external temperature during the rover's deployment was recorded to be on average -30 degrees Celsius or -22 degrees Fahrenheit, the rover kept its internal instrument payload at an average temperature of roughly 30 degrees Celsius or 86 degrees Fahrenheit. The rover was able to stay warm by self-heating due to running electronics and an internal air pump.

The ultra-durable ball reached speeds of 16 kilometers per hour (10 miles per hour) over the Antarctic ice cap, and traveled at an average speed of about 6 kilometers per hour (3.7 miles per hour). The winds at the South Pole were unusually low during the test. As a result, there were several periods during its deployment when the rover did not move at all. Even taking those lulls into account, the rover managed an average speed of 1.3 kilometers per hour (.8 miles per hour) over the course of the deployment.

Behar said the rover's design is especially well suited for polar missions to use instrument packages to look for water beneath a surface desert or an ice sheet, a task that cannot be done accurately from orbit.

Plans to construct the next generation tumbleweed rover are already underway at JPL.*
Future refinements of the design are likely to focus on reducing the rover's weight and rolling resistance to reduce the minimum winds needed to enable it to travel farther and the adaptation of the payload to include a ground-penetrating radar to conduct terrain and ice surveys.

Behar says he hopes an updated version of the rover will be deployed again later this year, and the design may one day find itself rolling on the polar icecaps of Mars.

The tumbleweed rover project is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was supported jointly by NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. and the National Science Foundation.

For more information on the tumbleweed rover visit:
http://robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/~behar/southpoletw.htm

For more information on the National Science Foundation visit:
http://www.nsf.gov

Espritch · #2 (**permalink**) 04-March-2004, 03:29 AM

That's an interesting idea.

Also check out the link to the inflatable rover.

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/adv_tech/rovers/bigwheel.htm

Amadeus · #3 (**permalink**) 04-March-2004, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Espritch

That's an interesting idea.

Also check out the link to the inflatable rover.

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/adv_tech/rovers/bigwheel.htm

I want one!

Is it strong enough to carry a passanger?

calliarcale · #4 (**permalink**) 04-March-2004, 05:01 PM

Oh my god, run! That's not just a rover -- that's Rover! It looks like a benign bit of technology, but really it's going to absorb us all into itself and drag us to the Village!

ToSeek · #5 (**permalink**) 04-March-2004, 05:31 PM

Tumbleweed "rover" takes 70 kilometer trip

Extravoice · #6 (**permalink**) 04-March-2004, 05:38 PM

Well, there is certainly no lack of imagination at JPL these days. =D>

sarongsong · #7 (**permalink**) 04-March-2004, 10:17 PM

Maybe they'd let us borrow it, uh, just for the week-end...
March 3, 2004
"...$1 million prize in the so-called Grand Challenge on Saturday...
Contestants must build unmanned, autonomous vehicles---no remote controls allowed---that will slowly make their way through 250 miles of Mojave Desert terrain between Barstow and Las Vegas. DARPA won't disclose the exact route of the race until two hours before it begins, leaving little time for preprogramming the vehicles' computers...Some observers call the contest impossible. Scientists have only developed a few rudimentary, autonomous ground vehicles such as the Mars rovers, and those can't move at half the speed the Grand Challenge cars will need to go ---about 25 to 50 mph...a step toward fulfilling a congressional mandate that one-third of all military vehicles be autonomous by 2015..."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?J17C23D97

Charlie in Dayton · #8 (**permalink**) 05-March-2004, 06:19 AM

Assuming that the Tumbleweed Rover cannot steer itself, and only goes where the winds blow, I can see that we'd almost have to have a large carrier orbiting Mars and spitting these things out every few minutes. They'd be scattered all over to get something resembling a coherent picture of a large area. Scientific purposes or not, this borders on littering in my view...now, the three wheel version that can go here, there and everywhere is another story.

Anthrage · #9 (**permalink**) 05-March-2004, 08:58 AM

You are number 6...

This idea has actually been around for a while. A balloon-design was considered and tested in the past which shared some of the aspects of the tumbleweed...I think it is certainly worth the cost of development and deploment, and while certain practical realities to limit their usage, there are some exceptional benefits to be sure.

Just how much weight is saved in such designs, compared to conventional platforms for a similar suite of scientific instruments I wonder? 88 pounds in the case of the tumbleweed that was tested, compared to 384 pounds (each) for spirit and opportunity? At a weight cost of over 4 for 1, with further savings in the area of orbit to landing requirements (chute, air bags etc.), deployment carriers may not be needed...5 tumblers you cannot direct might well be the equal of 1 rover that you can, and for a shorter duration as well. Sounds promising.

Amadeus · #10 (**permalink**) 05-March-2004, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarongsong

Maybe they'd let us borrow it, uh, just for the week-end...
March 3, 2004
"...$1 million prize in the so-called Grand Challenge on Saturday...
Contestants must build unmanned, autonomous vehicles---no remote controls allowed---that will slowly make their way through 250 miles of Mojave Desert terrain between Barstow and Las Vegas. DARPA won't disclose the exact route of the race until two hours before it begins, leaving little time for preprogramming the vehicles' computers...Some observers call the contest impossible. Scientists have only developed a few rudimentary, autonomous ground vehicles such as the Mars rovers, and those can't move at half the speed the Grand Challenge cars will need to go ---about 25 to 50 mph...a step toward fulfilling a congressional mandate that one-third of all military vehicles be autonomous by 2015..."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?J17C23D97

Sounds a bit like the "Wacky Races"

Will there be a live feed of the Race?

sarongsong · #11 (**permalink**) 05-March-2004, 07:30 PM

Well, there's this, from their very slick website:
"Satellite feed of DGC Start broadcast into Buffalo Bill’s Arena (RECOMMENDED)..."
http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/spectators.htm
Looks like the actual race is March 13, with public viewing of the vehicles during next week at California Speedway in Fontana.
Not familiar with Wacky Races.

Bill Dunaway · #12 (**permalink**) 06-March-2004, 12:58 PM

Since this ball looks like Rover from the Prisoner tv show, they should land it before Phoenix. That way it can be the sixth succesful Mars probe.

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