The Mars Rover Curiosity may have been able to execute a staggeringly complex descent and stick the landing, but isn’t exactly ready for the mission ahead of it, yet. First, it needs a good old fashioned software update. More »
Think it’s nifty when your carrier deigns to provide your smartphone with that long awaited OTA update? That’s nothing. Over the weekend, NASA’s Curiosity rover will be receiving its first long-distance OTA update — all the way out there on Mars. The goal is to transition both redundant main computers from software suited for landing the vehicle to software optimized for surface exploration — such as driving, obstacle avoidance and using the robotic arm. NASA calls it a “brain transplant” and points out that the software was actually uploaded during the flight from Earth. Now can someone please enable OTA downloads for the human brain? We’d really like to know kung fu. PR after the break.
Filed under: Transportation, Science
NASA’s Curiosity rover receives long-distance OTA update, ‘brain transplant’ on Mars originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Aug 2012 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Welcome to Friday everyone. The weekend is here is last, and what better way to kick it off than with a giveaway? We’ve teamed up with NVIDIA to hand out three 16GB Google Nexus 7 tablets, so be sure to enter (but read the rules before you do!). Apple and Samsung’s ongoing patent trial gave us a glimpse at sales numbers for both companies today, and we also found out that Apple is looking for a whopping $2.45 billion from Samsung. Even though Google has remained publicly silent about this whole suit, it turns out that it has been providing support for Samsung behind the scenes during the trial.
Let’s talk about space for a moment: today we found out NASA’s plans for observing the weather on the surface of Mars, and Elon Musk seems to think that we’ll have humans on the red planet within 12 years. We also found out why the Curiosity can’t send back better pictures of Mars, so if that has been an annoyance for you, be sure to give that a read. Google has gone to war with piracy, and the FTC has told Facebook that it needs “express consent” before it shares any information on users which would normally be prohibited under its own privacy settings.
Many of you have heard by now that Blizzard’s battle.net servers fell victim to a security breach this week, and we detail what you can do to make sure that you stay protected. Today images of both the new iPhone’s battery and its reported mini dock connector surfaced, as did more Geekbench results for a computer that looks an awful lot like a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Samsung has detailed its new Exynos 5 Dual chipset for smartphones, and Acer expressed concerns over Microsoft making Surface too cheap while unleashing details about its own upcoming Aspire S7 Ultrabook. Speaking of Microsoft, it appears that the company is considering yet another replacement for the Windows 8 Metro branding it can no longer use.
After hearing that Samsung isn’t interested in acquiring RIM, we’re now being told that IBM might be considering a buyout. MIT has developed a new resilient robot that’s the size of an Earthworm (it’s been dubbed the “Meshworm”) and a few new details about the next iteration of Kinect were leaked today. Finally, Rovio has announced that a new pink-feathered fowl will be joining the roster of temperamental birds in the next Angry Birds Seasons update, so watch out for that.
That about does it for the SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up for this Friday, so now all that’s left for you to do is to go out and enjoy the weekend! Have a good one, folks!
SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 10, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Right after the folks at NASA successfully landed their Curiosity rover on the red planet, entrepeneur and real-life Tony Stark made it clear that he’ll be there between 12 and 15 years from now. “We know it’s possible to get there,” he said, “You would be moving to Mars, so a round trip ticket, it has to be no more than half a million dollars, so roughly, a middle-class house in California, and at this point, I would say, I know it’s possible.” He let it be known via Nightline that he was confident “at this point” that it could be done, that people would be living on Mars sometime in the future, and that it’s our “life raft” for the future of the species.
Musk’s company SpaceX recently became the first 3rd party (non government-run) group to successfully dock with the International Space Station and is also currently working with NASA to send more ships to NASA equipment in the future. This next-generation space-race has SpaceX and a set of other interested parties looking to profit from the final frontier as fast as possible. With that and the news that we are, indeed, on Mars once again, made a situation in which Musk HAD to make a comment.
“I’m confident at this point that it can be done. I think we’ll be able to send, probably, the first people to Mars in roughly 12 to 15 years. That’s my estimate.” – Musk
The plan at the moment, should Musk’s initiative line up with the reality of tech in the day, is to colonize the planet and terraform for the future of humanity.
“Mars is the only place in the solar system where it’s possible for life to become multi-planetarian. We could make Mars like Earth…it’s more than our life raft, it’s like backing up the biosphere. … I think it would be the most difficult thing that humanity has ever tried to do.” – Musk
For those of you who are fans of the Entertainment part of this equation, a bit of trivia: Musk’s SpaceX research and design lab appears in Iron Man 2 as parts of Stark Industries. Musk appears in the film as well, speaking with Stark about the Merlin engines (real-life tech made by SpaceX) as well as electric jet. Everything is achievable through technology!
Check out the timeline below to see more Musk adventures as well – he’s going places and we’re going with him. For science!
Humans on Mars in 12 years says Elon Musk is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The Curiosity rover was sent to Mars to document a lot of different things, but one of the things it will be examining on are the weather patterns on the surface of Mars. Today NASA tells USA Today that it’s expecting mostly clear – if not a bit chilly – conditions on the red planet, with NASA scientist Manuel de la Torre saying that Curiosity can expect “balmy, minus-20-degree temperatures” during the day. At night, that already low temperature will plummet, eventually ending up around “minus-200 degrees Fahrenheit.”
If Curiosity only had the cold to deal with, it would be something of a pleasant getaway. These calm conditions aren’t expected to last much longer, however, as dust devils will begin to wreak havoc on the planet’s surface as the seasons change from winter to spring and then eventually summer. The dust devils aren’t even the worst of it either, as they can grow into massive dust storms that swallow the entire planet.
It’s those dust storm that de la Torre is interested in, and the Curiosity is well-equipped to study them. It comes loaded with tools that can measure wind speed and direction, air temperature, humidity, ground temperature, and air pressure. This weather data that’s collected on the surface will help NASA scientists determine if Mars is suitable for life, or if it ever was at some point in the past.
Ever since the Curiosity rover landed on the surface of Mars at the beginning of the week, we’ve been treated to one exciting news piece after another. True, talking about the weather on Mars may not be as exciting as seeing images of the surface, but this research is going to do a lot in helping us understand the red planet, and that is definitely something to look forward to. Be sure to check out our story timeline below for more posts on the Curiosity rover!
NASA’s Curiosity expecting dust storms on surface of Mars soon is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
If you were wondering why the photos coming back to us from NASA‘s Curiosity rover on Mars were so small, you certainly aren’t alone. As Curiosity’s camera project’s manager Mike Ravine explains to the Digital Photography Review, it’s not a matter of being able to put a more high quality camera aboard, it’s the data transfer. While your smartphone is capable of transferring gigabytes of memory a day if you really want it to, the Mars mission is limited to 250 megabits per day – that’s 31.25 megabytes (MB) and NASA certainly wasn’t about to dedicate that whole amount to photographs only.
The Curiosity rover is sending data to Earth in several ways, but only its UHF transmitter is able to push a large enough amount of data back to send images. The next issue was the fact that the same sensor had to work for four different cameras onboard: MAHLI, two Mastcams, and the camera set to capture the machine’s descent to the planet – MARDI. Each of these cameras were built around one single platform so that each of them would not have to be re-tested and qualified for the mission. This way of accomplishing NASA’s goals makes everything less expensive and more dependable in the end.
“We developed all four cameras around a common architecture so the choice of sensor was hedged across all of them. We wanted to be able to capture high frame rates, particularly with the descent camera. We also looked at a 4MP sensor but it would have run around half as fast. And the state of CMOS sensors wasn’t credible in 2004. They’re an interesting option now, but they weren’t then.” – Ravine
Ravine also explains that they were not able to get some of the equipment they’d hoped to be working with approved and on-board in time for the launch, including the 3D video cameras spoken about over a year ago with and by James Cameron.
“They were going to be 6.5-100mm zoom lenses, which would allow us to set them both to the same focal length for capturing stereo images. … We’re going to get some great mosaics with the focal lengths we’ve got, but we’re not going to get the wide-field cinematic moments or the 3D movies from Mars that Cameron wanted” – Ravine
Stay tuned as the Mars mission continues through the coming weeks and into the vast future of space! Check out our timeline below as well to keep up to date on all of Curiosity’s doings, drivings, and photography too!
Mars Curiosity photo size and cameras explained is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
For decades, scientists have believed that Earth was peculiar in having tectonic plates. Now, though, a UCLA geologist has found evidence that Mars, too, exhibits the same crustal plates beneath its surface. More »
Over at Wired’s Underwire blog, Angela Watercutter spoke with Bobak Ferdowsi, NASA’s supercool mohawked mission to Mars activity lead, about his newly acquired celeb status. More »
The Curiosity Rover’s landing on Mars was a successful one, and it is time to get down and dirty on the Red Planet. In fact, Curiosity has certainly lived up to its name by sending back another photo on Thursday – this time around, it outdoes the previous photo sent, as this is the first 360-degree color panorama snapshot of the Gale Crater in the world, or should I say, galaxy, barring any other forms of intelligent life outside the sphere of earth of course. What you see above was provided by the folks over at NASA themselves, and scientists are taken in by the majestic vista of red dust, dark sand dunes and tan-hued rocks.
Far away in the distance, you can see the base of Mount Sharp, which is a three-mile-high mountain that rises from the crater floor, and it is one of the many destinations that the six-wheel Curiosity Rover intends to traverse. Curiosity’s mission timeframe would be two years, where it will analyze rocks and soil to look for the potential chemical building blocks that are required to kick start life.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: NASA’s Mars rover: Curiosity almost complete, No 3D Rover camera from NASA,
The Curiosity rover sent to Mars this week by NASA has been collecting an ever-growing collection of photos from the Red Planet, the newest being the 360 degree panorama you see before you. This photo was taken with the vehicle’s highest-resolution navigation camera and is color-accurate to an unknown degree. We’re currently in the process of prodding NASA for their deep cover information on the cameras outside of what we already know – James Cameron is onboard!
In addition to the color photo you see above (and in larger “full size” format in the gallery below), you’ll be able to see some “3D” photos taken by the craft too. Head to this post from earlier this week to see photos taken with the vehicle’s dual camera setup and put on your red/green glasses for a thrill. Of course you know this means we’ll be seeing martians in three dimensions too – soon!
Thus far all we’re seeing is a bunch of rocks save for the machinery above and below the camera’s vision. The metal and plastic you see is actually part of the Curiosity rover, of course, and the cameras are able to look down further to make sure the rover is all there should a space monster come to take a swipe of it. While you’re at it, have a peek at the landing video NASA has provided of the beast heading towards the planet from earlier this week:
“The movie begins with a global image from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, then switches to views from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. As we zoom closer and closer into Gale Crater, the components of Curiosity’s landing system come into view: The heat shield was the first piece to hit the ground, followed by the back shell attached to the parachute, then the rover itself touched down, and finally, after cables were cut, the sky crane flew away to the northwest and crashed” – NASA
Then have a look at a collection of relatively high resolution shots coming from the machine this week. NASA will continue to provide us all with shots such as these as they explore the crater in which they’re sitting right this minute on Mars for all of the months that they’ll be there. Stay tuned as this space program continues to blast its way into the future. Stay steady!
New Mars Photos from Curiosity bring 360 color panorama is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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