Curiosity Rover Being Upgraded With Autonomous Sensor Program 45
DevotedSkeptic writes "Curiosity will be getting a software upgrade called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) which will allow it to take on the go photos to save precious time while exploring our red neighbor. Another interesting feature AGEIS may be able to provide is the ability for Curiosity to call home when it sees something interesting. It won't be a quick upgrade: AEGIS, which has been used on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity since 2009, will be installed on Curiosity in the next nine to 12 months, Estlin said in an interview with InformationWeek. The AEGIS software, developed by JPL, was named NASA's 'software of the year' in 2011. Opportunity uses the software to take a wide-angle image with a low-resolution camera, then picks out rocks in the image to see if there's something of interest. If so, it takes a high-resolution image using an on-board science camera that's capable of zooming in on the subject. The software has potential beyond picture taking. Its see-and-react code could be adapted to other instruments."
There's a paper on the software as used in the Opportunity rover.
Software updating on Mars... (Score:4, Funny)
Think bricking your phone was bad..
Re:language (Score:4, Funny)
It means more time doing actual science and less time waiting and looking at the boring stuff. Ok we did all the test we could on this rock. Ok lets find a different type of rock. Ok Lets do paper rock scissors on who gets to do analysis on the data and who will sit in front of the screen while the rover is moving to find a new type of rock.
Re:Software updating on Mars... (Score:5, Funny)
It's Patch Tuesday on Mars too.
Re:Why not load it from the start? (Score:5, Funny)
...If Opportunity has been using AEGIS since 2009, why couldn't it have been included in Curiosity from the start instead of this 12 month download over a slow connection? It's bad enough that video game companies push stuff out the door and then rely on release-day patches but I expect better from NASA.
Simple. To save weight. Them bits are heavy, cheaper to send them via radio than launch them with the craft.
rocks (Score:5, Funny)
"Hi NASA, I heard you like rocks so I took this picture of a rock. Hope it's good. Tell me if you want me to take a photo if I see another alien" - Curiosity
A thinking, autonomous robot (Score:1, Funny)
So NASA has created an autonomous robot with nacent thinking capabilities. Did I mention the laser? Good thing this is on Mars! Robocolipses start this way.