Originally posted by Raabjorn
Anyone knows where one can read more about this planet and mission there?

Originally posted by Jehosephat
it all deals with autonomus vehicles. How independant can they be. The mars rovers are far from indedependant.

Having more physical capability than 1997's Sojourner rover, Spirit and Opportunity also needed more autonomy. Engineers improved the auto-navigational driving software to give the golf cart-sized explorers more freedom.

When the rovers are navigating themselves, they get a command telling them where to end up, and then evaluate the terrain with stereo imaging to choose the best way to get there. They must avoid any obstacles they identify. This capability has enabled longer daily drives than would have been possible by simply depending on step-by-step navigation commands from Earth. As of mid-August, 2004, Opportunity has used auto-navigation to drive for 230 meters (about 755 feet, or one-third the distance between Eagle and Endurance craters), and Spirit for over 1250 meters (about 8 tenths of a mile), mostly during the nearly 3000-meter (nearly 2 miles) drive to the Columbia Hills.


The auto-navigation system takes pictures of the nearby terrain using one of the Mars Exploration Rover stereo camera pairs (body-mounted hazard-avoidance cameras on Spirit, mast-mounted navigation cameras on Opportunity). After stereo images are taken, 3-D terrain maps are generated automatically by the rover software. Traversability and safety is then determined from the height and density of rocks or steps, excessive tilts and roughness of the terrain. Dozens of possible paths are considered before the rover chooses the shortest, safest path toward the programmed geographical goal. The rover then drives between 0.5 and 2 meters (1.6 and 6.6 feet) closer to its goal, depending on how many obstacles are nearby. The whole process repeats until it either reaches its goal, or is commanded to stop.