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If you open up a robot vacuum cleaner, a self-driving car, or even one of NASA’s Mars rovers (which we definitely don’t recommend!), You’ll find a bunch of software-programmed processors that act as robot “brains.” All of them. robots have these computerized brains directing their movements and activities, but NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, will be the first out-of-this-world rover to have its brain split in two as it scans the surface of the Moon in search of water ice.
As it crosses the Moon, VIPER will think effectively from both its onboard flight software and the ground software run by mission control on Earth. Using an engineering prototype of the rover, the VIPER team recently began testing the software on simulated lunar terrain at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
“We use distributed processing all the time when we use our smartphones to run mapping apps that connect to distant servers and data centers to perform the computations,” said Terry Fong, chief robotic engineer and vice rover VIPER at Ames. “Likewise, VIPER will run most of its data on the fastest computers on Earth, as we have a relatively fast connection to mission control throughout all of the rover’s operations.”
In November, the team began testing the software’s ability to correctly execute commands with the rover prototype. Using an outdoor robotics R&D facility with slopes, boulders and craters called Roverscape, the team asked the software to take the rover for a test drive. The rover did a number of activities, such as turning in place, driving in a straight line, recording its position, adjusting the suspension, and keeping the antenna steady while in motion to ensure the rover could stay in contact with the Earth.
The prototype of the lunar gravity representative unit is a stripped down engineering test unit that focuses on the mechanical system of the VIPER, specially designed to allow engineers to test how the rover will drive with lunar gravity, which is one sixth of a the terrestrial one.
Due to the Moon’s proximity to Earth, communication delays are only a matter of seconds. VIPER engineers are taking advantage of this to download images and other data from the rover for quick processing, rather than having to rely only on the rover’s slower onboard computer, which also reduces the rover’s development costs.
Faster data processing means mission operations and science teams can make quick decisions about the rover’s path and scientific activities. This will accelerate operations, accelerate scientific breakthroughs, and maximize what they can accomplish during VIPER’s 100-day mission to the Moon’s South Pole.
“In addition to the scientific and operational benefits, keeping a portion of the VIPER software running on Earth means that engineers can take advantage of the latest and best computer processing, data storage and networking technologies,” said Hans Utz, chief engineer. VIPER rover software with KBR at Ames.
In addition to the use of distributed computing, VIPER will also pave the way by being NASA’s first planetary rover mission to make extensive use of open-source software, including key components adapted from ROS, the robotic operating system, considered the industry standard in development. of robotics. Once the mission is complete, the VIPER team intends to release the rover’s software for general use. This approach allows for a quick, agile, and cost-effective way to develop rover software systems that can also benefit future rovers on the moon and beyond.
VIPER is a collaboration inside and outside the agency. VIPER is part of the Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program and is managed by the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA’s Washington headquarters.
Related links
Birds investigating the polar exploration rover
Mars news and information on MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more
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China’s “space dream”: a long march to the moon and beyond
Beijing (AFP) December 2, 2020
The landing of a moon probe in China this week – the first attempt by a nation to recover lunar samples in four decades – underscored just how far the country has come to realize its space dream. Beijing has invested billions in its military-run space program, with hopes of having a manned space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the moon. China has come a long way in its race to catch up with the United States and Russia, whose astronauts and cosmonauts have had a decade … read more
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