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Space Toys Science Technology

Mars Rovers At Smithsonian And Exploratorium Now 85

Posted by timothy from the sorry-wrong-planet dept.
Illah Nourbakhsh writes "From the makers of the Palm Pilot Robot Kit comes our newest thing. If you live in SF or in DC you can go to the biggest science centers of them all, the Air & Space Museum or the Exploratorium and interact with miniature Mars rovers we've put in Mars yards there. The robots take panoramic images and track and test rocks, so it's no remote-control toy. All Linux on-board, using a prototype single-board arm-based robotics board (the Intel Stayton). The website 'gallery' has pictures of all of the rover's parts, including the Linux processor and the mechanicals. Gallery also has several videos. We've built 20 of these 'bots and they're in DC, San Francisco and Augusta, Georgia." If these were in toy stores ...
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Mars Rovers At Smithsonian And Exploratorium Now More

Mars Rovers At Smithsonian And Exploratorium Now

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  • Obvious question..... (Score:5, Funny)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2003 @11:11AM (#7845590) Homepage Journal
    So, I guess the obvious question is: Where can I buy one? Followed up by: Are you going to Open source it?

    • Re:Obvious question..... (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You forgot to ask about OGG support.

      ~~~

    • Open source robots, what a wonderous idea. If we are meant to make companions and not slaves of this technology let us give them a good face, a proud heart, and an indomitable will. Sort of like how that "linux kid" is portrayed by IBM.

      Where are our robot friends we were promised in grade school, damn common man and his fear of assimilating to broad sweeping changes in technology. It is not like he will be losing ever more control of the things that make a place habitable for himself, oh no.

      Who feeds, ho

    • Re:Obvious question..... (Score:5, Funny)

      by lxs ( 131946 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2003 @11:56AM (#7845999)
      No no no no no!
      The obvious question is:

      "Does SCO plan to send a probe to mars, carrying an invoice for $699?"
    • From the linked page:
      PS: For those of you interested in the source for the PER project, as with all of our projects in the Toy Robots Initiative, this too will be open-sourced. Check back here in the second week of January 2004 for the complete source code.
    • Augusta Ga. Is a nice afternoon drive from where I am. I had no idea there was a musem there. Anyone know anythig about this? Got a poiter to a web sit? Phone number? name?
    • Why do I think that even if someone could buy one, that they would not stand a chance of having it arrive at home successfully ?

      Maybe we should put Fed-Ex in charge of delivering these things to Mars. I can hear the commercial now. "Fed-Ex...When it absolutely, positively needs to get there overnight. In one piece. Without exploding, vaporizing, bouncing off the atmosphere or being driven into the ground due to metric/standard conversion issues"

    • Or at least make the plans and parts list available.

      This might make a good fundraiser.. hell I would pay for the Plans. I was watching the self test video and got really WIDE eyes... I want one of these things.

  • The real thing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2003 @11:12AM (#7845600) Journal
    Let's hope the actual landers make it safely to the surface of Mars, so these models don't end up being sad reminders of the science that could have been.

    Dan East

  • I've heard alot about these models (Score:5, Informative)

    by Naomi_the_butterfly ( 707218 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2003 @11:12AM (#7845601)
    I've heard alot about these models, and they're supposed to be spactacular. Incredibly accurate. There's a great collection of interviews (audio) with project scientists available at http://www.planetary.org/audio/planetaryradio.html . Really worth a listen.

  • Unfortunately (Score:5, Funny)

    by CrankyFool ( 680025 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2003 @11:14AM (#7845620)
    I called the Exploratorium. They said they were _supposed_ to receive one of these, but so far it's late checking in, and they're losing hope it'll actually arrive.
    • Informative? C'mon mods, know a joke when you see one!

      Happy New Year to all, may your lawsuits be laughed out of court
    • I believe they're starting to fear the worst now - they've just discovered a giant hole behind the bins and suspect it might have gone in there. There'll be someone in the line of sight to check on it tomorrow evening, and then again next tuesday - we can only hope...

    • Re:Unfortunately (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Unless you are in CA, I'd say you have a few days. quoting the article:

      Our installation sites and approximate opening dates are:

      The National Science Center (Augusta, GA) Jan. 24
      The San Francisco Exploratorium (San Francisco, CA) Jan. 2
      The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (Washington) Jan. 3
      The Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center (Dulles Airport) Jan. 24
      The NASA/Ames Mars Center (Mountain View, CA) Dec. 29
    • The robots ARE at the Exploratorium and are working great thanks to the fine folks at CMU. The "personal" rovers will go on display this weekend coinciding with our webcasts. See http://www.exploratorium.edu/mars for details.
    • Sounds like you were dialing internationally, rather than domestic - U.S.

  • Rock tracking? (Score:4, Funny)

    by CompressedAir ( 682597 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2003 @11:15AM (#7845635)
    The robots take panoramic images and track and test rocks,

    "Still there... yep, still there. The rock has not moved."
    • The robots take panoramic images and track and test rocks
      "Still there... yep, still there. The rock has not moved."

      It's actually to detect if there's life. If the rock moved, either a)it wasn't a rock, or b)a little green man moved it! Come on man, pay attention.

  • Oops... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by cybermace5 ( 446439 )
    Check it out, those photos on the first page of the link are notthumbnails! Yes folks, they are the full 330K jpegs, merely resized to the thumbnail size. Don't you hate that? I thought that habit died in 1999.
  • Hey, I like some of their nomenclature for the parts [cmu.edu]. They have got a "Cerebellum board", which I presume controls aspects of stability or movement?

    • Re:Cerebellum board (Score:2, Interesting)

      by x4A6D74 ( 614651 )
      I've worked with the Cerebellum. I TA'd for a summer program at CMU for high school students who are strong in compsci/math. Part of the curriculum was building robots out of Lexan, hobby servos (with Lego wheels, 'cause they were conveniently around when the instructor moved away from Mindstorms), and these boards.

      They have a PIC 16F877 controller driving 8 digital tristate I/O lines, and 8 analog lines (which I think were just input, IIRC). So we plugged the modified servos in as motors, and for sens

  • Did the check the back room? Maybe the Beagle is hiding in there.

    Damon,

  • Control your own rover! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Naomi_the_butterfly ( 707218 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2003 @11:21AM (#7845700)
    Yes, this is real. You can actually control your own rover through the web, and see live images. These aren't replica's, but made of lego's to drum up interest in the "Red Rover Goes to Mars" bit sponsored by The Planetary Society [planetary.org], a group over 20 years old that advocates space exploration and planetary science, founded (in part) by the great Carl Sagan.
    Go to http://www.redrovergoestomars.org/Rrsites.php and control your own rover!
  • Well now I know what I am going to ask Santa for next year.
  • I think they should capture more realism by just advertising the Mars Explorer models. Then, when all the kids come to play with them, they would just have the empty display. Maybe the control panel could display, "SEARCHING FOR SIGNAL...". Does anyone else think that the problems with getting something on Mars kinda gives validity to the whole "we didn't really land on the moon" conspiracy theory?
    • "Does anyone else think that the problems with getting something on Mars kinda gives validity to the whole "we didn't really land on the moon" conspiracy theory?"

      Certainly, in exactly the same way I should be expected to drive 10 miles in a blizzard because I have shoveled my sidewalk.

  • Tech Museum in San Jose too (Score:3, Interesting)

    by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2003 @11:30AM (#7845789)
    The Tech museum in San Jose had an exhibit like this (about 3 years ago?). They had a little rover model running around in a simulated Martian crater. Visitors could control the rover remotely through a closed circuit TV and joystick setup. It was quite fun.
    • These ain't that. Looking at the videoes, the robot is making its own navigational choices. It snaps a picture of the terrain, you point out an interesting looking rock in that picture, and it finds its way there all on its own.

      Why aren't I making robots?

    • The Tech museum in San Jose had an exhibit like this (about 3 years ago?). They had a little rover model running around in a simulated Martian crater. Visitors could control the rover remotely through a closed circuit TV and joystick setup. It was quite fun.

      I think this is a new, autonomous exhibit, not the remote control ones from other museums.

      The Houston Space Center [spacecenter.org] has the remote control one, which me and the wife visited when we were on a pilgramage to Ikea (damn your fashionable and reasonably

  • Please!!

  • "Linux Processor" (Score:1, Interesting)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 )
    What is a "Linux Processor"?
  • Warden: There's no Air in Space
    Homer: There's an Air and Space Museum!
  • I especially like the pictures of the assembly process.
    I need to do something like that.
  • Mars probes are usual debris strewn across the surface of the red planet.
  • It's really a shame this isn't part of the Space Exhibit [spaceexhibit.com] that's currently in Seattle and slated to tour the country for the next four years. I'd love to see these little fellas getting greater exposure; I only make it to the Smithsonian once every ten years.
  • If people would actually read the article linked to, it mentions at the bottom (yes, a place most people never make it to) that this project will be open-sourced in January.
  • I think it's obvious that Martians have been swatting our probes all along. What other explanation could there be?
  • I refuse to visit the place ever since (about 4 years ago) I went and saw a skeleton they had, with a very clear sign explaining the difference in the number of ribs between men and women. Presumably having to do with the Garden of Eden mythos.
    • Did it say that this was from the garden of Eden or was that implied? Is it reasonable to not be interested in a science facility nor help children explore science because once there was an exhibit which merely suggested that there might me some basis in a story which has been told for at least 3,000 years? Maybe someone is a little insecure in their (lack of) beliefs.
      • Heh.

        Alternately, a person can be very secure in their beliefs, and doubt the credibility of an ostensibly scientific institution which uses non-scientific processes.

      • It didn't say anything about the Garden of Eden, but I know of very few other mythologies that imply that the number of bones in a man are different than in a woman.
        I do not doubt my knowledge (I don't like to call them beliefs), do you doubt men have the same number of ribs as women?.
        A place that calls itself a scientific museum is not worthy of my $x if it has something as basic as this wrong, especially because of the source of the misake: anti-science, anti-mind, anti-human.
        • I should have been more clear before. I do not believe that (normal) men have a different number of ribs than (normal) women. Nor do I believe that the Bible states otherwise. Nor do I believe that when a man has a rib removed that this would somehow (unlike all other surgeries) be a trait passed on to his offspring. I am not tiring to defend the Exploratorium in the way that they have passed on bad information. My point is that a single case of misinformation isn't reason to condemn an institution. T
          • Would you have entered the same boycott if the Exploratorium had an exhibit stating that the nearest star was 8.4 light years (double the truth)?

            Not likely, I would have been upset, but not as much as I am by the source.
            Traditional judeo-christian religion IS anti-science in that it places blind faith above observation and reason. It is anti-mind in the same way, and it is anti-human in that it totally ignores our very essence: human=rational animal. I disagree with you, science (in essence believing
          • Would you have entered the same boycott if the Exploratorium had an exhibit stating that the nearest star was 8.4 light years (double the truth)?

            I don't think a numeric mistake like that is nearly as serious as a mistaken claim about a significant anatomical gender difference in our species. The latter seems to imply either a startling degree of ignorance, or as has been suggested, a religious agenda of some kind. Either way, I wouldn't place very much credence in other information presented by the sam

  • It would be interesting to put the rover in a closed room so it can't be seen, then add about 10 to 20 minutes of delay each way from its camera to the user and from the controls back to the rover.

    The real rover was not controlled from earth in a continuous way because of the time delay - sets of commands were uploaded infrequently.

  • Finally, something usable on earth (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Wednesday December 31, 2003 @11:06PM (#7850945) Journal
    NASA finally has made a practical technology: Remote Up-skirt viewers

    "Honest officer, the probe thought it was on another planet."

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