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Viewpoint: Explore Mars with robots
John Merchant
(08/18/2009 12:25 PM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219400438
 
(Editor's note: A presidential commission is scheduled to make its recommendations by the end of August concerning the future of U.S. manned space flight.)

President Barack Obama's recent appointment of the Augustine Commission to review NASA's plans for human space flight is timely. It is 40 years since the great pioneering achievement of the Moon landings, yet instead of going onto Mars as many had hoped we are back in low Earth orbit with a controversial Space Station.

In stark contrast, 40 years after Charles Lindbergh's pioneering achievement of the first solo transatlantic flight, luxury jumbo jet travel had been established throughout the world. We are clearly on the wrong path in space!

We have not gone onto Mars because of the enormous difficulty and the enormous cost of a manned mission to that planet. However there is another much easier, and much more affordable way " telepresence.

Telepresence is an emerging technology that could enable humans to function in, and experience, a distant space environment such as Mars as effectively, for all practical purposes, as actually going there - but without going there!

Early stage telepresence is already being used for terrestrial and space applications. For example:

  • Soldiers in Afghanistan are using unmanned ground vehicles to remotely find and disable IEDs - by telepresence.

  • Airmen in Colorado are using unmanned aerial vehicles to find and attack terrorists on the other side of the world - by telepresence.

  • A Food and Drug Administration-approved operating room suite enables surgeons to perform minimally invasive surgery remotely - by telepresence.

  • NASA has sent two Rovers named Spirit and Opportunity to Mars and scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California are using them to dig into the Martian surface to look for signs of water - by telepresence How would enhanced telepresence, as effective for exploration as actually going there, differ from the early stage telepresence now being used by the rovers currently on Mars? Not in any fundamental way, but only by degree of technical sophistication. For example:

  • By enhanced dexterous capability of the rover's manipulators that would more nearly match the dexterous capability of an astronaut's gloved hands and fingers.

  • By a larger, more physically powerful Rover that could move around and do the heavy work that a space-suited astronaut might do.

  • By a source of more power for this more capable Rover.

  • By more video imagery relayed back from the Rover to the human controller.

  • By more local intelligence, and more local visual and tactile perception by the Rover to enable it to independently, intelligently, and expeditiously carry out the high level commands sent, with a 30-minute transmission delay, by its human controller on Earth. For example: "Go over there, pick up that rock, take it to that analysis station, and then report back to me."

    The italicized locations would be identified by the human controller on his/her video image of the Martian scene, and this annotated image, together with the associated action commands would be relayed to the Rover.

    Exploration of Mars by enhanced telepresence is the human exploration and development of space that NASA has been aspiring to do all along. The exploration is not performed by the inanimate Rover on Mars, but by its human controller on Earth. In exactly the same way, talking by telephone is not done by the inanimate earpiece at the other end of the line, but by the human talking into the mouthpiece!

    Multiple rovers could ultimately be deployed that would enable multiple humans on earth to simultaneously function in, and experience Mars. These rovers, under direction of their human controllers on Earth would be able to repair and maintain each other. A permanent human presence would thereby be established on Mars. Telepresence missions could also be undertaken to other planets, moons and asteroids for which manned missions might never be possible.

    Development and deployment of a telepresence mission to Mars would be technically challenging, but much less so, and much less expensive than a manned mission. Restructuring our space program from manned missions to telepresence would develop a vibrant high-tech industry attractive to young engineers and scientists, that would serve not only telepresence for space but also many terrestrial applications of telepresence.

    Exploration by telepresence is strange. Emotionally, we might prefer to explore much as we did in ages past by going down to ships at the harbor, casting off, and setting sail for unknown lands. But now that space has become potentially open to us, exploration has taken on an entirely new dimension. In life generally, we revere the past but must always move forward. Faced with the daunting challenge of space we should not abandon our dreams, but seize the great opportunity it presents. We should set a goal for humans to be there permanently and affordably on Mars, other planets, moons and asteroids by telepresence to derive wealth and knowledge as, over the ages, we have by exploration and development of our own planet.

    —John Merchant is an IEEE member and president of RPU Technology Inc., which he founded in 1996.

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