Projects: Red Rover Goes to Mars
We Make It Happen! Red Rover Goes to Mars
by Bruce Betts
The following article is reprinted from the March/April 2004 issue
of The
Planetary Report. We Make It Happen! is a regular feature of The
Planetary Report, written by Planetary Society
Director of Projects Bruce Betts. Through it, we keep our members updated
on our projects—what we are doing together to make space exploration
happen. The Planetary Society, with its members—and because
of its members—does a lot of amazing things. These include our many
SETI ventures, Mars exploration projects like Red Rover Goes to Mars
and the Mars Microphone, extra-solar planet activities, near-Earth object
programs, and, of course, our groundbreaking solar sail mission.
Wow! We really have made it happen. Not only did the world witness the arrival
of three very successful new spacecraft at Mars and a successful comet fly-through,
but The Planetary Society also had success beyond our wildest expectations.
We set a string of firsts, involved the public in this remarkable time of
space exploration, and brought 16 exceptional students to the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) to work on the Mars Exploration Rover mission and promote
the future of Mars exploration.
As you’ve read here (most recently in the November/December
2003 and
January/February 2004 issues of The Planetary
Report), The Planetary Society’s
Red Rover Goes to Mars project—conducted in partnership with the LEGO
Company—is an official part of the Mars Exploration Rover mission. Our
participation represents no small feat as the first education experiment on
a planetary spacecraft. Let’s review what turned out to be one of our
most successful projects ever, and show a small sampling of the intriguing
images being returned by Spirit and Opportunity.
Q: What Do You Get When You Mix . . .
4 Million People, All Our Members, and Two Astrobots?
A: A very special DVD now on the surface of Mars (times 2)! The identical
DVDs (one on the lander that carried Spirit and the other on Opportunity’s
lander) are only the second and third pieces of privately funded hardware
ever to fly on a planetary spacecraft (the first was The Planetary Society’s
Mars Microphone on the failed Mars Polar Lander).
The Planetary Society provided the mini-DVDs to each spacecraft. Each DVD
contains the names of almost 4 million Earthlings—the names of all Planetary
Society members as of October 2002, and those of the general public who signed
up via a NASA website to send their names to Mars—thus giving themselves
a piece of the future and some ownership in the mission. These ultra-durable
silica glass DVDs can last as long as 500 years!
Each DVD also carries unique engagement tools to teach, entertain, and inspire.
The label on each disc has a secret message encoded around the outside rim—two
different messages and two different codes. We now have images back from Mars
showing both DVDs, and we challenge kids and the general public to look at
the images and decode these messages. To try to crack the codes or just learn
about them, or to find a link to print a certificate that your name is on
Mars, go to the DVD page on the website.
Each DVD also has on it an Astrobot, a representation of a LEGO mini-figure
suited up for space. Biff Starling became the first Astrobot on Mars with
Spirit and Sandy Moondust the second with Opportunity. After Biff safely touched
down on Mars, he had this to say: “This is one very tiny step for a
tiny robot, and, well, one somewhat larger step for dudes and dudettes everywhere.” Since
then, he has chronicled his adventures at Gusev Crater in his unique and endearing
Biff way. The usually stoic Sandy has had a change of attitude since being
run over by the Opportunity rover. She’s been appreciating the beauty
of her new home and learning to have fun. You can read their entertaining
and educational first-person accounts of their journey, their landing, and
their Martian explorations on our website.
Each Astrobot has three magnets built into its body. These magnets are designed
to collect magnetic dust as part of a collaboration with the Mars Exploration
Rover magnet team, who have a number of magnets on the rovers. The Astrobot
magnets have indeed shown accumulation of dust, details of which are still
under analysis at the time of this writing.
Q: What Do You Get When You Mix . . .
a Stick, a Circle, Mars, and Bill Nye the Science Guy?
A: A MarsDial on each rover. When Planetary Society Director Bill Nye looked
at the Pancam camera calibration targets on board each rover, he saw a shadow-casting
stick and a circle—a sundial. Nye and a cast of characters including
the Society’s Louis Friedman developed a plan to make a MarsDial (see
the January/February 2004 issue of The Planetary
Report).
On a moving platform such as a Mars Rover, you can’t have the hour
marks drawn on your sundial. To solve that problem, the calibration target
images have been processed by The Planetary Society’s Student
Astronauts to add hour marks using software developed at Cornell University in collaboration
with University of Washington’s Woody Sullivan. These MarsDial images
appear on our website in an effort to connect one of Earth’s oldest
science devices with one of our newest—all on another planet.
Q: What Do You Get When You Mix . . .
16 Sleep-Deprived Students from 12 Countries?
A: The Student Astronauts (see the November/December
2003 issue of The Planetary Report). This group of 13- to 17-year-olds performed spectacularly in mission
operations, working side by side with the scientists and engineers behind
the success of these extraordinary rovers. The students worked in teams of
two, each pair spending about one week at JPL during the first two months
of the Mars Exploration Rover mission. They worked on Mars time (which means
sometimes they were working overnight), and they were there to witness the
excitement of landing and egress and to take part in daily science team meetings.
The students also processed images of the MarsDials, worked on other image-processing
tasks including science analysis of the variation in atmospheric dust, and
collaborated with the magnet team. Their biggest job—to communicate
out to the world what it is like inside mission operations—continues.
While at JPL, they did countless interviews and chronicled their daily experiences
on our website, and they continue to talk to the US and international press
as well as their peers, schools, communities, and, in some cases, even their
nations’ leaders. These enthusiastic young people are now acting as
ambassadors—promoting the future of space exploration and inspiring
the next generation of explorers.
Q: What Do You Get When You Mix . . .
The Planetary Society, the LEGO Company, and Our Members?
A: Pure success. Success in involving the public in new, innovative ways
in planetary exploration. Success in inspiring kids. Success measured by enormous
Web traffic to our many activities, press coverage, member and public feedback,
and warm, fuzzy feelings. Thank you to LEGO, a company with a commitment to
education and to inspiring kids. The company stuck with us through the cancellation
of the 2001 lander, knowing the risks of planetary exploration. Thank you
as well to Planetary Society members.
I say it a lot in this column, but the members of The Planetary Society really
make these things happen, and they really have something to be proud of. The
first educational experiment on a planetary mission; the first, second, and
third privately funded pieces of hardware flown on planetary spacecraft; 4
million people paying more attention to space exploration than they would
have; and countless people around the world who played a part in this extraordinary
endeavor of space exploration.
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