Mars Rover Upgraded

MrShaggy writes "According to a BBC article, NASA is upgrading their MARS rovers. The upgrade will allow the rovers to sift through the pictures of dust-devils, decide which is the most appropriate, send it back. 'Clouds typically occur in 8-20% of the data collected right now,' Castano said. 'If we could look for a much more extended time and select only those images with clouds then we could increase our understanding of how and when these phenomena form. Similarly with the dust devils.' The article also discusses upgrades to the Mars Odyssey. They plan to make it self-reacting to events on the planet as they are happening."

hope NASA doesn't get Rover from VZ

[yagu]

I hope NASA doesn't get it's Rover from Verizon or any of the other cell phone industry, or some of the upgrades they'd have to consider would include:

• bluetooth (extra charge for making it work the extra millions of miles)
• a surcharge per picture to transfer them back to Earth
• extra games for entertainment while waiting for the right conditions for picture taking (oh, Tetris DOES come free).
• blurry video capability
• Martian voice-recognition (phone hommme)
• internet surfing
• GPS
• downloadable music (limited to 100 songs)
• text messaging
• customized ringtones (REM's Man in the Moon is free)

I wonder if the Rover gets unlimited roaming?

Shazbot, my head is STILL ringing from the utilitarian cell phone debate [slashdot.org]. (or is that a Britney Speers ringtone?)

I pity the guy who had to propose this...

[abigsmurf]

I could just imagine the guy from NASA who had to request the funding for this. "so, you want to spend millions upgrading the rover?" "yep" "what will these millions give us?" "it'll enable us to decide if a picture of dust is interesting or not!" "..."

Re:What Upgrade?

[Zonekeeper]

Obviously, you didn't RTFA.

DUH. This is Slashdot.

And the upgrade went online on August 4th...

[Lead Butthead]

Mars Rover begin to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14am Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug...

Don't power off the Rover during reflash

[MobileDude]

Would be a hell of a trip to reset the CMOS.

Excellent!

[Anonymous Coward]

No more 'Buffering ...'

Re:And the upgrade went online on August 4th...

[vertinox]

It becomes self-aware at 2:14am Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug...

Only to realize they had forgot they were solar powered.

Key quote.

[jpellino]

"Leaving the robots to "get on with it" - to do the decision-making - is the way ahead, Nasa believes."

Where have I heard this before...?

"I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you. "

Upgraded?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it have spinners and a neon kit now? :D

Ofcourse not, they are going to outsource it

[SmallFurryCreature]

That martian labor is dead cheap you know and you hardly notice the language barrier.