The only robot on any other planet

Wed, 30 May 2012 08:44:00 +0100

This post is part of an ongoing series about robots, past and present. See Musical Interlude.

The Mars Opportunity Rover

Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. It is currently the only active robot on any planet other than Earth (until the scheduled arrival of Curiosity in August 2012). The mission was originally supposed to last 90 days.

The rover contains pieces of the fallen World Trade Center which were turned into shields to protect cabling.

Skiing on Mars

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:45:00 +0100

This post is part of an ongoing series about robots, past and present. See Friends, Robots, Countrymen.

The Soviet PrOP-M Rovers

In May 1971, the USSR launched two rovers to explore Mars. They were to move on skis (!!) while connected to the landers with 15m umbilical cables.

The first one crash landed. The second landed successfully but failed twenty seconds after landing and never moved. The reasons are unknown although the landing took place in the middle of a dust storm. The base module did manage to transmit about 20 seconds worth of the first ever photograph of the surface of Mars, shown on the left here. According to the Soviet Academy of Sciences there is nothing, horizon or otherwise, identifiable in this photograph.

Space on ZeroSharp

The only robot on any other planet

The Mars Opportunity Rover

Skiing on Mars

The Soviet PrOP-M Rovers