From MS E-mail

Northern California Mars Society/NASA Ames Robot Collaborate on Project Funded by Google
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- The Northern California Chapter of the Mars Society and NASA Ames Research Center have been awarded a grant by Google for the "Spaceward Bound Robotic Vehicle Project for Research and Education". The project will purchase and configure two robotic rovers for use in telepresence testing as part of Spaceward Bound. Spaceward Bound is an educational program organized at NASA Ames Research Center in partnership with The Mars Society, and funded by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) at NASA Headquarters.

Members of the Northern California chapter work on their rover.

Graduate and undergraduate students are competitively selected to take part in two-week mission simulations at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) site near Hanksville, Utah. MDRS is a simulated Mars exploration base, which includes a habitat for human explorers, where research and training for future Mars exploration is conducted. The Mars Society established and operates MDRS. The students learn a set of skills necessary to do field work in extreme environments on Earth and, by extension, on the Moon and Mars. Teleoperated robotic rovers will be an important part of any Moon or Mars research base. The project will train students to use this tool and have them develop this tool as part of a tool-kit used in field exploration. The rovers will be remotely operated from the habitat in teleoperation mode communicating through a wireless mesh network in the outside area. The project will help scientists understand the interaction between robotic vehicles and crews performing research, scouting or habitat maintenance on Mars. Minimizing crew exposure through complementary use of robotic vehicles for preliminary tasks will limit the load and risks to critical life support equipment while allowing crews to prepare missions from the safety and comfort of the habitat. In addition throughout its duration the project will test a number of scientific packages and communication schemes between the vehicle and computers within the hab.

In collaboration with the partners of the Spaceward Bound program, members of the Northern California Chapter of the Mars Society will provide the expertise to set up and maintain a robotics research capability located at MDRS in Utah for use by students, teachers, and scientists. In addition, the project will conduct outreach to students at schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, utilizing a robotic vehicle to promote science and engineering and inspire the next generation of explorers.

Additional information is available at these websites:

Spaceward Bound http://www.quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/

Northern California Chapter of the Mars Society http://chapters.marssociety.org/usa/ca/northca/

Mars Desert Research Station Daily Logs http://www.marssociety.org/mdrs/fs06/

Mars Society http://www.marssociety.org

Not bad for an escapist playhouse eh?

Regards,
Mark