New Software for Martian Winter Locations
Well, Old Man winter is blowing his icy gusts of cold over the United States while NASA is preparing new software in order to help the twin rovers find protection during the worst time of the year on planet Mars. The software will hopefully also be able to combine this designated spot with their new spring explorations.
So far, the new software has decided that the steep Martian mesa “Von Braun” is a perfect choice, at least according to NASA’s software and data analysis determination. But unfortunately during the winter the needed path to be taken is very risky during the winter hours, according to Ron LI, who is the professor of civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science at Ohio State University. Right now, the little rover Spirit is heading toward the “Home Plate” in loose soil that is definately slowing it down.
This latest software used by Ron LI is using satellite images and rover images to determinate the appropriate area for winter. According to NASA, Von Braun’s excessive 25-degree incline is steep enough to gather critical energy from the Martian low winter sun, offering energy to the rover’s solar panels to maintain their workload. But the problem is that there are no safe winter sites available en route for the rover to hide out when traveling to the Von Braun if a storm hits. The 400-feet journey will take a number of days, even in favorable weather, which requires for Spirit to seek out steep sloves for adequate angling of its solar panels to receive proper sunight for power. With no bail out spots en route to Von Braun from the Home Plate location, images from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will compare the rover’s panorama images to map features in a more precise manner.
Prior to the new software development, a similar software was used to map the Opportunity rover as it descended into Victoria Crater. The new software has advancements, such as being able to identify Martian surface features which enable the two rovers to investigate more further the Martian surface. The HiRISE images offer a one foot resolution on the Martian ground, allowing a combination of orbital images with ground images to better identify rocks. By combining two or more rover panorama images, a “stereo viewpoint” is offered for Martian surroundings. The new software is the only thing effective that offers such high-technology–with one panoramic viewpoint taken by a rover from a viewpoint of several feet to 300 feet. The combination combines images in a manner similar to both left and right optical viewpoints at the same time.
The Von Braun is a very hopeful location for NASA for interesting geological features, so NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover team is looking forward to next years continuing research. Meanwhile, they have also joined the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, which will be launching a Mars mission in 2013.
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 9:35 am and is filed under Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
