Re: Opportunity's Odometer Clocks Over 10 km Mark

In article <12sv8e57s3guvdf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Pat Flannery <flanner@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But the manned expedition is about three orders of magnitude more
productive, in science return per day on the surface, based on both
historical data and comparisons made by experienced unmanned-mission
organizers...

But that makes the assumption that what the rovers are capable is static.

Yes, and it very nearly is. The technology is getting better, yes, but at
a comparative snail's pace. The MERs are better than Sojourner because
they had more money and mass and development time, not because the
technology has improved dramatically.

...One can
picture a time in the none-too-distant future where rovers can navigate
across a planetary surface in a entirely autonomous mode safely, and at
some point beyond that would be capable of spotting interesting features
and heading toward them.

One can picture these things happening in the not-too-distant future, yes,
but so could planetary geologists thirty years ago, and progress has been
far slower than expected. The way to bet is that it will continue to be
frustratingly slow.

Given the level of detail visible in the images from near Victoria
crater, if we were to map all of Mars to that level of detail...

That isn't even a theoretical possibility for the foreseeable future --
the field of view of the MRO hi-res camera is very narrow. Mapping the
immediate vicinity of likely operations areas is more realistic, but even
the best maps won't tell you about things like Purgatory Dune.

downlink the rover's position to it, and have it navigate to intended
targets via inertial guidance...

Unfortunately, given things like wheel slippage and sensor errors, it's
rather harder than it looks.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. | henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

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