yes. was part of a contest called lander challenge.
contest wast to build, launch, and remotely direct a rover to a specific point.
I think our club was on efo the three top contenders, but we got hung up due to some sticky parts on the lander.
rover was just a RC car
Has anyone built an amateur version of the Martian rovers?
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> If so please supply links and a discussion of how you did.
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> Thanks
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> TMT
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> FYI...
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> Rovers Still Exploring Mars After 2 Years By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science > Writer
>
>
> The warranty expired long ago on NASA's twin robots motoring around
> Mars. These two golf cart-sized vehicles were only expected to last > three months.
>
>
> In two years, they have traveled a total of seven miles. Not impressed? >
> Try keeping your car running in a climate where the average temperature >
> is 67 below zero and where dust devils can reach 100 mph.
>
>
> "These rovers are living on borrowed time. We're so past warranty on
> them," says Steven Squyres of Cornell University, the Mars mission's
> principal researcher. "You try to push them hard every day because
> we're living day-to-day."
>
>
> The rover Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 3, 2004, and Opportunity
> followed on Jan. 24. Since then, they've set all sorts of records and
> succeeded in the mission's main assignment: finding geologic evidence
> that water once flowed on Mars.
>
>
> Part of the reason for their long survival is pure luck. Their lives
> were extended several times by dust devils that blew away dust that
> covered their solar panels, restoring their ability to generate
> electricity.
>
>
> Like most Earth-bound vehicles, these identical robots have their own > personalities.
>
>
> The overachieving Opportunity dazzled scientists from the start. It
> eclipsed its twin by making the mission's first profound discovery -
> evidence of water at or near the surface eons ago that could have
> implications for life.
>
>
> The rock-climbing Spirit went down in the history books by becoming the >
> first robot to scale an extraterrestrial hill. Last summer, it
> completed a daredevil climb to the summit of Husband Hill - as tall
> as the Statue of Liberty - despite fears that it might not survive > the weather.
>
>
> The rovers haven't been all get-up and go - technical hiccups have at
> times limited their activity, even from the start. At one point, Spirit >
> had a balky front wheel, but engineers overcame the problem by driving
> it in reverse. Last spring, Opportunity got stuck hub-deep in sand
> while trying to crest a foot-high dune, and was freed after weeks of
> effort by the Earth-bound engineers.
>
>
> The six-wheeled travelers, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
> in Pasadena, also are showing signs of aging. In November, a motor on
> Opportunity's robotic arm stalled and the arm failed to extend while it >
> was surveying a rock outcrop. The engineers fixed that problem after > two weeks.
>
>
> This mission is the first time any probe has extensively rolled across
> Mars, whose rocky landscape is a dangerous place for man-made objects
> to settle and roam.
>
>
> There have been four previous Mars landings that succeeded. Of those,
> NASA's stationary Viking 1 lander operated the longest, from 1976 to
> 1982. NASA's Sojourner was the first rover, but it stayed close to its
> Pathfinder lander.
>
>
> Spirit and Opportunity parachuted to opposite ends of Mars. Spirit
> landed in Gusev Crater, a 90-mile-wide depression south of the Martian
> equator. Opportunity followed three weeks later, touching down on
> Meridiani Planum on the other side of the planet.
>
>
> In two years, Spirit has traveled over three miles and beamed back
> 70,000 images including self-portraits and panoramas of the
> rust-colored planet's surface. Opportunity has driven over four miles
> and transmitted more than 58,000 images.
>
>
> Three times NASA has extended the rovers' mission, spending an extra
> $84 million on top of the $820 million original price tag.
>
>
> While both rovers have discovered clues of ancient water, they also
> have found evidence of a violent past that might have prevented some
> life forms from emerging.
>
>
> Piecing together a definitive history of Mars is far from over,
> scientists say, as the rovers head to their next destinations to
> explore more rocks and minerals.
>
>
> Spirit recently descended Husband Hill and is driving toward a basin
> that holds geologic promise. Opportunity is rolling to an enormous
> depression known as Victoria Crater that is thought to hold more clues
> about the planet's past.
>
>
> "Rock layers are the barcode of Mars history," said John Grotzinger, a
> science team member from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
> "Every time we encounter new layers, it's another piece of the puzzle." >
>
>
> ___
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>
> On the Net:
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> Mars Rovers:
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