Watch the presentation here: Opportunity: 10 Years on Mars
And when you're done with that, join the party! Planetary Society - 10 Years on Mars
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It's been 10 years since the Mars Exploration Rovers landed on Mars! Since January 2004, Spirit and Opportunity have helped NASA scientists make numerous discoveries, but it wasn't without a fair amount of challenges. Although Spirit can no longer be reached, Opportunity is still performing dutifully - well beyond its original 90-sol warranty. In celebration of this milestone, NASA JPL hosted a public event featuring project Scientists and Engineers who give insightful perspectives from past to present. Special guest, Bill Nye, also takes the stage.
Watch the presentation here: Opportunity: 10 Years on Mars And when you're done with that, join the party! Planetary Society - 10 Years on Mars
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With the latest upgrade, I was able to review Sonar Experiment No. 2.5 data with the benefit of having heading information. This allowed me to see how Brake 'Bot was oriented during each run. But why stop there? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to replay what Brake 'Bot was doing for all of the runs (even the unsuccessful ones)? With a GoPro Hero3+, I collected video while logging range and heading data. This opened up a whole new world for data analysis! After taking a look at the new data collected in Sonar Experiment No. 3, I made a few important observations that I overlooked in previous experiments. For more details (and raw data) go here: Sonar Experiment No. 3 Launius and McCurdy created a thought-provoking and well-referenced book, "Robots in Space," which gives a serious analysis of human and robotic space exploration. I picked up this book at my local library on a whim. It didn't have the usual book sleeve, and I didn't scope out any book reviews before checking it out. The simple title and a glance at the Table of Contents convinced me that this was worth my time. (In fact, now that I've seen the cover art, I'm pretty sure the authors had no say in its choosing. It doesn't match the scale of the ideas they discuss, and may be misleading.)
What I really appreciate about the book are: (1) it provides an excellent narrative of the lead-up to our current space exploration paradigm along with the prominent personalities that influenced it; (2) it introduced me to relevant works of fiction while providing insight on works with which I thought I was familiar (e.g., the purpose of the Star Child in Clarke's and Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey"); and (3) the authors clearly explained the broad motivations behind government investment in space. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in either robots or space because the authors treat each topic separately and together to explain our current space exploration paradigm. They also offer a reasoned discussion on how this paradigm may need to change in order to support interstellar travel. This book pairs well with the following: StarTalk Podcast - "Space Chronicles" [Part 1] [Part 2] StarTalk Podcast - "I, Robot" [Part 1] [Part 2] Wonderfest 2009 - "Do Robots Make Better Astronauts?" October Sky NASA - Eyes on the Solar System If you've read this book too, give me a shout! The 2014 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) season officially kicked off this weekend! Each year, FRC brings together thousands of high school robotics teams from around the world. Teams compete with and against each other in a challenging game that requires creativity, technical know-how, and grit. Although FRC isn't just about the game, the kick-off event served as the official unveiling of this year's game animation: Aerial Assist. If you are even remotely interested in robotics, find a way to help out at your nearest school. I enjoyed being a mentor last year, and I look forward to doing it again this year!
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AuthorI'm Augustine and I like robots. I build robots as a hobby and learn about real-world robots as often as I can. If you like robots too, let's talk! Blogs I Read
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