Mars robots to get smart upgrade (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Jonathan Amos
BBC News science reporter, in Baltimore

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The new algorithms will give the robots' computers the onboard ability to search through their images to find pictures that feature these phenomena.

Only the most significant data will then be sent to Earth, maximising the scientific return from the missions.
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Lorenz envisages the next craft on Titan to be a blimp that could fly itself around the moon and select the most interesting locations to set down to do investigations.

"It's important to note also that launch dates will no longer limit technological capabilities," he added.

"We've seen how the Mars rovers are constantly being updated. To get to Titan, it will take about seven years, during which time we can improve and finesse the type of autonomous software we might apply. In the future, the capability will be there not just to patch flight software but to completely re-write it."
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5022524.stm

A very interesting article. Just hope some future space mission isn't deep-sixed by spam.

[Dudley_DUright]

1. One mission to Mars failed because

the programmers forgot to convert some parameters from British to metric units (or maybe visa vera, I forget). :-(

[Dead_Parrot]

2. the 1999 climate orbiter...

oops...

[tomreedtoon]

3. Another Firmware Upgrade Horror Story in the making.

At the TV station where I work, most of our videotape machines, video servers and even our audio board is based on computer tech. And every month or so, the manufacturers come out with upgrades to the firmware - the semi-permanent programs built into the machines.

Almost without exception, every firmware upgrade we do causes the machines to malfunction. Sometimes in catastrophic ways. We then have to hope and pray that when we report the problem, the manufacturers come up with new firmware that fixes those problems without creating TOO MANY new ones. (There is no such thing as a perfect functional upgrade.)

Looks like this is another case in the making, only no one can go to Mars to hit the reset switch on the rovers.

[Ready4Change]

4. It's something that must be done "cleanly"

I've done many firmware upgrades on motherboards and video cards. To date I haven't had any go far awry. However, I've been doing them while sitting right at the machine. Doing so over a communications line takes much more care, lest you cause the device at the far end to cease communications.

I used to administer a "small" BBS system, sometimes remotely. There were a number of times I screwed something up and the BBS shut down, and it statyed down until I or someone else got down to the downtown office and manually got it up and running again.

That would be a lot more difficult if the "office" were 20+ AU's distant.

[RandomUser]

5. Slashdot discussion

Here's a discussion on this issue from the tech crowd at slashdot

http://science.slashdot.org/science/06/05/28/148245.shtml

The quality fo their stories fluctuate and get duped often, but the discussions are usually entertaining.