Three years and counting: Ohio State team measures Mars rover progressBy Ashley LampCommunications Assistant OSU COllege of Engineering June, 2007 After more than three years of excellent performance, the rovers Spirit and Opportunity of the Mars Exploration Rover mission sit on the Red Planet — in the middle of a global dust storm. It relies on solar power, which means it is stranded with limited energy, waiting. The readings of the rovers’ movement, analyzed and computed by Ron Li, professor of civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science, and his team from the Ohio State Mapping and GIS Laboratory, will not be measured until the rovers ride out the storm. This project, one of many Mars-related research projects conducted by Li and his team, supports the rover mission by providing timely positioning capability considering topographical challenges on the uncharted surface of Mars. Opportunity and Spirit, have surprised the team on Earth with their unprecedented lifespan. “We’ve been involved in the mission operations for more than three years, and the rovers were only designed to survive for 90 days,” says Li. One member of Li’s team this summer is undergraduate Rebecca Greenberger, who came to Ohio State from Washington University in St. Louis for a collaborative project under Li. She was working under Ray Arvidson, the deputy principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover mission and a professor at Washington University, who recommended that Greenberger gain more experience by working with Li and his team. “I never thought I would have the opportunity to work on a Mars mission in my life, but thanks to Dr. Li and to Dr. Arvidson, I am able to do this kind of research, and I’m only 19,” says Greenberger. Since her arrival in June, she has been working on two different subjects that benefit the Mars expedition. Li says working with Greenberger “strengthens the collaboration between the two universities on Mars research.” NASA has been supporting Ohio State for this research. The Ohio State research team is building a new camera system, which is expected to enhance the rover’s vision and navigation capabilities. The system can potentially be used for future Mars rover missions. Furthermore, the team is developing autonomous Mars rover localization software that can be used for long-range rover navigation. For the Mars Science Laboratory mission in 2009 or later rover missions, Li says, the team hopes the software can be used by NASA. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For more information on the rover project, visit the Mapping and GIS Laboratory Web site at http://shoreline.eng.ohio-state.edu/ |