Antarctic Robots Exceed Expectations.

scrondle writes "Robots deployed by the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory outperformed expectations. Scientists involved in the research believe they may be poised to do the first robotic traversal of Antarctica."

Third post

[afaik_ianal]

There - I just exceeded my own expectations!

They actually went ahead?

[Anonymous Coward]

I heard they put the project on ice after the government froze the funding.

Re:They actually went ahead?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but perceptions thawed. This is looking red hot; there's a burning desire to get the furnace stoked and the project steaming along.

Excellent!

[zephc]

Have the found the Ancient's antarctic base yet?

Re:Excellent!

[penguin-collective]

Marty, have you gone off your medication again?

Re:Interesting story

[afaik_ianal]

I could write a long narrative about the ethics of post-modern male chauvinism

Yep - go for it. It just has to be more interesting than the thing about the 1m^3 box.

Re:Interesting story

[Anonymous Coward]

You obviously live in a temperate zone.
Antartica is a little more than snow and David Attenborrough. Antartica is one of the few extremes left on this planet.
It's very hard for life to exist there all year round, and having robots that can run successfully there isn't quite as exciting as a rover wheeling it's way around the surface of Titan, but it has a HELL of a lot more relevance and will be able to tell a heck of a lot more about our own planet.

Re:Interesting story

[jdray]

Antartica is a little more than snow and David Attenborrough.

Right. It's also got penguins. It must run Linux.

It's because of the...

[MrFlannel]

local denizens brushing off the solar panels, otherwise they'd be long covered by dust.

Geez, how many dupes of this story do we need?

Re:It's because of the...

[wildsurf]

local denizens brushing off the solar panels, otherwise they'd be long covered by dust.

Fortunately, in Antarctica, the dust melts.

Re:It's because of the...

[ultranova]

Fortunately, in Antarctica, the dust melts.

At -40 degrees Celsius ? What's it made of - frozen nitrogen ?

Do they run linux?

[jibjibjib]

For Antarctica, I think an OS with a penguin would be the most suitable.

Re:Do they run linux?

[J-Doggqx]

OK, I'll bite...

Deep Impact [nasa.gov], because nothing crashes like Windows.

Re:Do they run linux?

[the_brobdingnagian]

And FreeBSD is best suited for a Mercury mission.

Re:Do they run linux?

[fbjon]

For Antarctica, I think an OS with a penguin would be the most suitable.

It's more complicated than you might think...

First of all, you need two machines, so that when one of them dumps the core, control can be passed over to the other. Then the first machine must go on a long march to the sea and back, in order to recover from power loss. Then control must be passed again, and the other machine marches to the sea while the first machine resumes debugging of the core. After a while, the core has been debu

IAAAE

[dargaud]

(I am an Antarctic Explorer)

My website [gdargaud.net] has already been on the front page of slashdot, so I'm not really kharma whoring, but yes, we do run Linux there. I got back last months from 12 months in Antarctica, spending the winter at the new station of Concordia [gdargaud.net] on the high Antarctic Plateau where we had temperatures of -78C (no, not including the windchill). I was doing atmosphere science there, in charge of 8 experiments as part of a team of 13 people. I had something like 10 PCs with me, many of whom died at

Re:Nice

[Detritus]

That could be fixed by adding an RTG (radioisotope thermoelectric generator). It would probably kill their hardware budget.

Re:Nice

[4D6963]

Yeah, I thought they might want to use some nuclear power in case of lack of light, but as long as it would happen on earth, i'm afraid tree-huggin hippies would do whatever they can for it not to happen

No polar bears in Antarctica

[Terje Mathisen]

If you ever travel to Antarctica and think you see a polar bear, one of three things are actually happening:

1) One of your friends have put on a costume to scare you.

2) You joined the wrong expedition, the one going to the Arctic (think North Pole) instead of the one going south.

3) You're hallucinating

Take your pick what's the most likely.

Terje

Re:No polar bears in Antarctica

[MrFebtober]

Same goes for when you're traveling to the Arctic and think you've spotted a flock of penguins. "They're probably just rocks, dude. Not penguins."

Re:No polar bears in Antarctica

[Anthony Boyd]

4) You're on Lost, and Walt is dreaming up what he reads in comic books, again.

Re:No polar bears in Antarctica

[njchick]

4) One of your friends brought in a polar bear to scare you (and penguins).

Re:No polar bears in Antarctica

[geoswan]

There is a commercial for a soda pop, where a cute animated Polar Bear cub accidentally slides into the middle of a flock of penguins. Friendship ensues when a bottle of soda pop is exchanged.

Sorry, I can't remember what brand of soda pop it was. :-)

Sea Leopards fill a similar ecological niche in the Antarctic that Polar Bears fill in the Arctic. I think Sea Leopards would make mincemeat of Polar Bears if someone were nutty enough to import some Polar Bears down there...

Re:No polar bears in Antarctica

[mav[LAG]]

Not only one of the best assembly programmers ever but also has the ability to make coke shoot 3 feet out my nose.

Sir, I salute you. A truly unique combination of talent.

Re:excellent.

[Gabrill]

If you ever get around to recreating Hoth Battle, I'm stowing away on a Rebel cruiser. Preferably the first one, because I get to see an Imperial Star Destroyer accellerating out of position after having been completely disabled by an ion blast. Come to think of it, it might be cool to be the one that pulled the trigger on that one.

Coming soon to a theater near you...

[Rob T Firefly]

"March of the Penguins II: Rise of the Machines."

Some software changes...

[The-Bus]

Just make sure when you write the optical scanning software you account for lifeforms protecting themselves from the cold hiding inside the gutted carcass of a seal or, say, a taun taun.

More Info

[necro81]

There is more information at the project website [dartmouth.edu].

Miskatonic Expedition

[bar-agent]

Satellite photography shows a truly impressive mountain range at approximately 76 degrees 15 minutes Latitude by 113 degrees 10 minutes East Longitude. My team wishes to secure deep-level specimens of Antarctic rock and soil using our new drilling apparatus, and we feel that these mountains are of particular interest, as a previous expedition had found some singular pre-Cambrian formations, seemingly of a fossil, vegetal nature, perhaps worthy of further study.

Miskatonic University, however, has a rather sm

Re:Miskatonic Expedition

[Cybrex]

I'm sure that the government would just Love to Craft one of these machinations for you to assist in your exploration of those eldritch Mountains, but I think it's Madness! Ia! Ia!