To the moon and beyond
There are some things in life that you cannot really plan for. Things that make you think: “Man, that would be cool!” but in truth you don’t believe it could ever be a reality.
Things like owning an island or controlling a NASA rover.
Well, last night I took control of a NASA rover. Yes, I am serious.
The SAAO (South African Astronomical Observatory) organised an uplink to the NASA lunar exploration guys in California and as members of the Cape Centre “Astroclub”, hubbie and I was able to attend the demonstration. Via Skype we were introduced to the NASA guys and then introduced to Max Rover. Now, Max isn’t one of the lunar rovers, but rather created to explore areas on earth that is less than friendly to humans. Like the middle of the desert. But don’t let this fool you. A lot of what is learnt by developing rovers like Max is what will put a rover on the moon. And getting back onto the moon is what is aimed for.
When we met Max he was in a 4m x 4m test box with fine sand and a couple of (ill-placed) rocks somewhere in California. Shortly after the Skype video was exchanged for a view from Max’s onboard camera. And then the voice from America drifted into the room: “So, are you ready to take control?” Boy, were we ready.
Hubbie got first try. We controlled Max via internet connection, and in the process you have anything from a 0.5 second to a 4 second delay. This is actually rather appropriate, because operators of moon rovers will be faced by a 4 second delay, because that is how long a radio wave round trip to the moon is. We used a joystick and were able to control the camera (effectively 360 degrees and somewhat up and down) as well as drive the rover. Now, if you have not figured it our already: a 4 second delay (and a silly internet connection dropping out much too often) seriously screws with your ability to know where you are. Add to that the fact that you are looking via an onboard camera that could be pointing anywhere, displayed on a laptop screen, it gets rather complicated. Also keep in mind that you can’t see the rover. You can only see what the rover sees. None the less, hubbie did a great job, only bumping into a rock once.
Then some of the other guys got turns and we were told by the NASA guys (watching the rover move on their side) that we were doing well, since they haven’t had to dig it out for any of us. In response Pierre did spin a mini crater with dust flying, but still didn’t get stuck.
Then Peter Martinez (Head: Space Science & Technology at SAAO) announced that there was time for one more.
Usually I am a bit afraid to step up. What if someone else wanted to do it? Maybe I’ll make a fool of myself? But after the obligatory 3-4 second delay, I got up. I took control. Kinda.
It is harder than my gamer hubbie made it look. A room full of people watching you and knowing the NASA guys are on the other side also does not help. And the delay does really mess with you. You push the joystick forward and nothing happens. So you let go just to see the rover making his way over the sand now that you are doing nothing. So you pan the camera around to get your bearings, put it back on facing forward (if the camera was pointing somewhere other than forward or back I really lost it) and try to judge how long to move the rover without actually seeing it do anything. Then stop and watch it go. Then you pan around again. Make it move a little. Pan. Move. Get cocky.
End up on a rock.
“Not sure how you managed that,” the American voice said.
“Woman driver,” I had to admit.
“Okay now drive straight back, no! correction drive straight forward.”
I can only imagine what poor little Max look like on top of his rock. But we did manage to get him off safely without someone having to get in the box and pull him out. And I will stick to my story; I was testing his climbing ability…
So now I am at one of those points of my life where I realise I just did something really cool. I controlled a NASA rover in California via uplink from Cape Town. Really cool. It feels like I should tick it off some kind of list. So here goes:
101 things I did before I died
1. Control a NASA rover
Looking forward to the other 100.
Things like owning an island or controlling a NASA rover.
Well, last night I took control of a NASA rover. Yes, I am serious.
The SAAO (South African Astronomical Observatory) organised an uplink to the NASA lunar exploration guys in California and as members of the Cape Centre “Astroclub”, hubbie and I was able to attend the demonstration. Via Skype we were introduced to the NASA guys and then introduced to Max Rover. Now, Max isn’t one of the lunar rovers, but rather created to explore areas on earth that is less than friendly to humans. Like the middle of the desert. But don’t let this fool you. A lot of what is learnt by developing rovers like Max is what will put a rover on the moon. And getting back onto the moon is what is aimed for.
When we met Max he was in a 4m x 4m test box with fine sand and a couple of (ill-placed) rocks somewhere in California. Shortly after the Skype video was exchanged for a view from Max’s onboard camera. And then the voice from America drifted into the room: “So, are you ready to take control?” Boy, were we ready.
Hubbie got first try. We controlled Max via internet connection, and in the process you have anything from a 0.5 second to a 4 second delay. This is actually rather appropriate, because operators of moon rovers will be faced by a 4 second delay, because that is how long a radio wave round trip to the moon is. We used a joystick and were able to control the camera (effectively 360 degrees and somewhat up and down) as well as drive the rover. Now, if you have not figured it our already: a 4 second delay (and a silly internet connection dropping out much too often) seriously screws with your ability to know where you are. Add to that the fact that you are looking via an onboard camera that could be pointing anywhere, displayed on a laptop screen, it gets rather complicated. Also keep in mind that you can’t see the rover. You can only see what the rover sees. None the less, hubbie did a great job, only bumping into a rock once.
Then some of the other guys got turns and we were told by the NASA guys (watching the rover move on their side) that we were doing well, since they haven’t had to dig it out for any of us. In response Pierre did spin a mini crater with dust flying, but still didn’t get stuck.
Then Peter Martinez (Head: Space Science & Technology at SAAO) announced that there was time for one more.
Usually I am a bit afraid to step up. What if someone else wanted to do it? Maybe I’ll make a fool of myself? But after the obligatory 3-4 second delay, I got up. I took control. Kinda.
It is harder than my gamer hubbie made it look. A room full of people watching you and knowing the NASA guys are on the other side also does not help. And the delay does really mess with you. You push the joystick forward and nothing happens. So you let go just to see the rover making his way over the sand now that you are doing nothing. So you pan the camera around to get your bearings, put it back on facing forward (if the camera was pointing somewhere other than forward or back I really lost it) and try to judge how long to move the rover without actually seeing it do anything. Then stop and watch it go. Then you pan around again. Make it move a little. Pan. Move. Get cocky.
End up on a rock.
“Not sure how you managed that,” the American voice said.
“Woman driver,” I had to admit.
“Okay now drive straight back, no! correction drive straight forward.”
I can only imagine what poor little Max look like on top of his rock. But we did manage to get him off safely without someone having to get in the box and pull him out. And I will stick to my story; I was testing his climbing ability…
So now I am at one of those points of my life where I realise I just did something really cool. I controlled a NASA rover in California via uplink from Cape Town. Really cool. It feels like I should tick it off some kind of list. So here goes:
101 things I did before I died
1. Control a NASA rover
Looking forward to the other 100.
No way! Man that is awesome.
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