Virtual Sojourner
Student Activity #1: Driving Blind

Introduction

Photo courtesy NASA

The objective of this activity is for you to modify a radio-controlled car or truck to perform a mission without actually being there! This activity simulates a mission Pathfinder's rover, Sojourner, performed on Mars during the Summer of 1997. The mission will also have implications to the Rocky7 rover suggested for future Mars missions.

This is the ultimate remote control challenge--direct a mechanical device to perform a set of operations without seeing what it is doing! Watch out--what happened to Sojourner might happen to you!

Photo courtesy NASA

The Mission

The mission is to command your "rover" to move to a specific location. Its job at this location is to perform an experiment and record data.

Suggested procedure:

• View a video taped "panorama" made by your teacher or the lander team. The tape should be of a site that is not familiar to anyone in class and has sand, pebbles, and rocks.
• Choose, as a class, the mission objective--where the rover is supposed to go and what it is supposed to do there.
• Form teams for each component of the mission.
• Make a scale map of the site. Include major points of interest and all obstacles. Click here for an example taken from the Viking mission to Mars in 1976.
• Plan a route for the rover. A detailed list of instructions will be needed for the rover navigators--how far for each movement forward, the angle for each turn, etc.
• Modify a radio controlled car or truck to contain an experiment and method of recording data. Experiments may be meteorological (temperature, pressure, wind speed), geological (soil magnetics, soil temperature, rock composition), or biological (evidence of water or "life"). This becomes your "rover."
• Practice navigating the rover using time as the measure for each maneuver -- forward __?__ seconds, right __?__ seconds, etc. Remember, you will not be able to see the rover as it is moving!
• Execute the mission. Navigate the rover to its selected location. Command it to perform the chosen experiment. All commands are given "blind," that is, no one may see the rover move. Information from the camera at the site may be used to check positioning, BUT it must be delayed at least a seven minutes after the last rover command. Additional mapping and planning may be done, if needed, as decided by the class.
• Report on the mission. Write a report on how the mission went and what was learned. Publish your report, if you like, to this Web site for others to read. Make sure there is class consensus on each answer before entering the report.

Ready, set, ...

• Read all instructions for the activity.
• Learn the responsibilities of the other teams.
• Follow the links above to learn more about the activity.
• Plan and execute your mission.
• Have fun!