Classroom exercise driving rovers Options

[Burmese]

Interesting little article:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...5012222,00.html

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Worksheet 3 - Controlling a rover
Space: 2009 magazine 1 - Mars: the new frontier

“The twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on the red planet in January 2004 for a mission expected to last 90 Martian days but, more than five years later, the 174kg robotic explorers continue to roam up to 40m a day across the Martian surface.”

When we think about scientists controlling the movement of the Mars rovers, we think of someone seated before a screen and moving a joystick to make the rover change direction – rather like the way we direct a remote-control car. However, the radio waves that control the rover move at the speed of light (300,000km/s) so the time taken for the image of the rover to reach Earth and the time for the command to go to Mars would take many minutes.

You will try to simulate the control of a rover using the Mars: The New Frontier magazine.

Activity
1. Using the school gym or a large area, create an obstacle course on the floor using coloured sheets of cardboard (or students) as markers.

2. Form students into groups of four – one driver, one communicator relay, and two to be the rover.

(see linked article to read the rest on how to drive a rover....)