Monster Trucks on
Mars
by Patrick L.
Barry and Dr. Tony Phillips
We all know what Mars rovers look like now: Robotic platforms,
bristling with scientific instruments, trundling along on small
metallic wheels. Planetary rovers of the future, however, might look a
little different-like miniature monster trucks!
Enormous, inflatable tires can easily roll right over the rocks and
rugged terrain of alien planets, just as they bound over old cars like
as many speed bumps.
That's the idea behind a novel concept for robotic planetary rovers
known as the "big wheels inflatable rover." Unlike rovers
similar to the Sojourner robot that explored the surface of Mars in
1997 that depend on instructions sent from Earth or complex programmed
intelligence to steer through rough terrain, this rover has three
beach ball-like tires roughly five feet across that make it a true
off-road vehicle.
"We sent this rover out to Death Valley, to a place called Mars Hill
that has a general geological formation like Mars, and nothing could
stop it," says Jack Jones, the mastermind of the inflatable rover
concept at JPL. "It just kept going and going and going."
Lots of current research is devoted to developing advanced robotic
intelligence that allows rovers to detect rocks in their path and
maneuver around them. The alternative to such on-the-spot intelligence
is tedium: Ground controllers on Earth working out the maneuvers by
hand and waiting an hour or more for the instructions to travel to the
distant planet.
A "big wheels" rover would need such computer intelligence to
avoid very large boulders, but Jones asks, "Why worry about every
little rock, pebble, and crack when you can just roll right over most
of them?"
Jones imagines a scenario where multiple inflatable-wheel rovers could
be sent out to explore the Martian terrain-easily and quickly
traversing the rugged terrain. Samples gathered by the rovers could be
returned to a central, stationary laboratory module for detailed
analysis.
"The Martian surface is really very, very rough with a lot of rocks,
and to be banging this laboratory equipment up and down over all of
these rocks aboard the rovers doesn't make much sense," Jones says.
"I suspect it might be better to leave it in a central
location."
At the moment it's all very speculative; NASA currently has no
definite plans to send inflatable rovers to Mars. But who knows, one
day monster truck-like vehicles could be zipping over Mars' rough, red
surface.
Kids can baffle their friends with a robot puzzle (including a "Big
Wheels" rover) they make themselves at
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/robots/robot_puzzle.htm . For adults,
find out more about NASA's inflatable rover program at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/adv_tech/rovers/summary.htm .
This article
was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of
Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
The "Big Wheels" inflatable rover doesn't mind a few
boulder-sized rocks, no matter what planet they're
on!
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