Internet language runs real, virtual rover ...

8:06 AM 1/17/2004
       The same piece of software that lets people all around the world play video games on their cell phones is now letting scientists drive the ultimate remote-controlled car across the surface of mars.
       Java, the software developed by Sun Microsystems Inc, in the middle 1990's as a universal platform for Internet applications, gave NASA a low-cost and easy-to-use option for running Spirit, the robotic rover that rolled into the planet's surface on Thursday in search of signs of water and life.
       For the next three months, NASA scientists and engineers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena will polt Spirit's wanderings with Java-based ScienceActivity Planner that operates like digital Gran Turismo.
       "It takes all the raw data in the missiondata base and builds a 3-D terrain you can spin around and zoom in, "Gene Chalfant, JPL technical staffer, said. 		        earth-pic

With the same point-and-click skills one would need for, say online shopping, the NASA team will plan Spirit's daily activities, page through voluminous data and communicate.

back