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GROVER or Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research is an Earth-bound autonomous student-designed rover developed by the Goddard Space Flight Center.[1] With this solar-powered rover, scientists hoped to get cheaper data about the Greenland ice sheet that lies in a rapidly warming region.[2] The test drive started in Summit Camp in Greenland on a three kilometer thick ice sheet, which is the highest spot on the largest island of the World.[3] The science team was led by the glaciologist Lora Koenig from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The test began on 3 May 2013 at temperatures as low as −30 °C (−22 °F) and continued until 8 June 2013.
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Scientific expectations and cost reduction
editGlaciologists expected to get information about how snow accumulates layer by layer over time by using the rover's ground-penetrating radar. Using humans, airplanes or satellites costs more than using rovers.[3] The rover was expected to at least match the performance achieved by humans. The rover was also intended to measure newly created layers that occurred in summer 2012, when higher-than-normal temperatures caused surface melting across 97 percent of the ice sheet.
An accompanying rover named Cool Robot, intended to tow a variety of instruments for glaciological measurements, was also planned for deployment in June 2013. The solar panels of GROVER are arranged in an A-frame configuration so that it can get energy both directly from the Sun, which does not set during the Arctic summer, and from reflected sunlight. The rover operated at a location where the ice sheet is 2 miles (3.2 km) thick.[3] It used a preprogrammed route and required only minimal interactions from the operator. Radar penetration reached up to 20 metres (66 ft), providing information about snow accumulation over the previous 20 years.[2]
Technical data
edit| Height (m) | 6 feet (1.8 m) |
|---|---|
| Mass (kg) | 360 kilograms (790 lb) |
| Average speed | 2 kilometres per hour (1.2 mph) |
| Test distance | 700 kilometres (430 miles) |
| Radar penetration | 20 metres (66 ft) |
References
edit- ↑ Loff, Sarah (2013-05-10). "NASA's GROVER Debuts On Greenland's Ice Sheet". NASA. Archived from the original on 2013-05-11. Retrieved 2013-05-11.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - 1 2 Marshall, Christa; ClimateWire (2013-05-03). "Meet GROVER, a Mobile Robot to Measure Greenland's Ice Sheet". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 2013-05-10. Retrieved 2013-05-11.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - 1 2 3 "NASA Rover Prototype Set To Explore Greenland Ice Sheet". NASA. 2013-05-02. Archived from the original on 2013-05-11. Retrieved 2013-05-11.
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