From: Jan Wee <jwee@mail.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Re: Red Rover
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 07:34:06 -0600
Dear discuss-lfm members,
>What exactly is The Red Rover Project? I keep seeing references to it on
>this list, along with mentions of grants, etc. that people have obtained
>to do the project. Where could I get more information about it?
>
>Thanks-
>Claire Frick
Red Rover, Red Rover is a student telerobotics project that is sponsored
by The Planetary Society.
Here is the information about the Red Rover, Red Rover Project taken
directly from their homepage at:
http://www.transatlantech.com/tps/explorers-red-rover.html
CONTACT information at the end of this file!
Red Rover, Red Rover Project
An Educational Project of The Planetary Society,
Visionary Products Inc., Utah State University, and
LEGO Dacta.
Students Explore Mars
From around the world, middle school students are
learning how to explore Mars remotely with robotic
rovers when they participate in the Red Rover, Red
Rover Project. Red Rover, Red Rover is a hands-on,
educational project launched by The Planetary Society.
Students design and build robotic vehicles from LEGO
Dacta kits (educational division of LEGO) and operate
the rovers via sophisticated computer software that
mimics the control programs used by planetary
scientists to explore other worlds. Each Red Rover,
Red Rover team also creates a Mars-scape at their site
so that the rovers may operate in an "alien" terrain of
miniature volcanoes, impact craters, canyons and starry
skies.
Link-up Days
Remote rover control on Red Rover, Red Rover
Link-up Days is enabled by a computer
communications program developed by the Center for
Intelligent Systems at Utah State University. The
program uses a modem and regular telephone lines or
Internet to send to any location in the world images
seen by a small camera mounted on the rover. Student
operators study the images to determine the best
direction in which to move the rover. The program then
relays the student commands back to the rover, and the
vehicle moves across the simulated surface of Mars.
Just Like the Real Thing
While the distance between remote sites on Earth may
not be interplanetary, they are a good approximation for
middle school students. Sending a command to an
actual rover on Mars would take as long as 40 to 80
minutes (round trip). For this project, communication
delays are a few seconds to less than a minute -- long
enough to impress the students with the difficulty of
remote exploration, but not so extreme as to lose their
attention.
Contact the Red Rover, Red Rover Project
How to get more information and sign up for the Red
Rover Red Rover Project.
Red Rover, Red Rover
The Planetary Society
65 North Catalina Avenue
Pasadena, California 91106-2301
Phone: (818) 793-5100
Fax: (818) 793-5528
Electronic Mail: tps.cj@mars.planetary.org