Next Martian Rover Goes Through its Paces - Zoe’s Next Mission
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The Atacama desert recently saw another scene like the one above, of researchers assembling Zoe before it enters the coastal region. September 2005 marked the beginning of Zoe’s third and final trip to this planet’s most arid region. At that time, the vehicle, its scientific payload, and a team of researchers began an exploration of the desert that was expected to last for two months. Plans called for Zoe to traverse between 100 and 200 kilometers in the desert and examine 50 science targets. If everything works out, a great deal of that travel will be autonomous. While Zoe’s record for autonomous travel last year was by no means perfect, travel experiments ended in potentially fatal errors in only 5 percent of the tests. “Potentially fatal” errors included such problems as hitting an obstacle, descending an embankment, or other problems that could not be recovered from remotely.
“Our goal with this final investigation is to develop a method to create a real-time, 3D topographic `map’ of life at the microscopic level,” explained Natalie Cabrol, a planetary scientist at NASA Ames and the SETI Institute. “This map eventually could be integrated with satellite data to create an unprecedented tool for studies of large-scale environmental activities on life in specific areas.”
In truth, Zoe’s mission has two prongs. First, the vehicle faces the task of detecting life in the arid region of the Atacama desert, an area that often suffers through decades-long periods without precipitation. The second prong of the mission involves procedural developments; for example, the researchers hope to make improvements on how the rover decides where to explore.
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