[ Page 1 ] An out-of-this-world IT job: Mars rover driver

Guiding the rovers from millions of miles away takes skill, patience

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You'd type in the detailed route directions, including right and left turns, then enter the desired speeds and terrain information to reach your office.

Finally, you'd upload the data wirelessly to your car, which would then follow your directions without your having to touch the steering wheel, gas pedal or brake pedal.

If you can imagine all of this, then maybe you can understand what it's like to be one of NASA's Mars rover drivers.


Mars rover drivers Scott Maxwell (far left, back row) and Ashley Stroupe (far right, front row) use 3-D goggles with several colleagues to view images sent back from the rovers earlier this month. They are part of a 14-driver contingent at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
From 100 million miles away, about 14 workers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., take turns daily planning and plotting the routes, work schedules and areas to be explored by the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, as they make their way across the Martian surface.

The NASA engineers don't sit at a console and operate the rovers remotely using a joystick. Because of the vast distance between Earth and Mars, there's a lag time between when the data is sent to the rovers and when it is received. That means that operations in real time, or at the split second a command is given, aren't possible.

Scott Maxwell, 36, one of the original members of the rover driver team, said the time lag is about four minutes each way when the planets are on the same side of the sun, but can lag as much as 20 minutes each way when the sun moves between Mars and Earth as they orbit.

BitMicro unveils plans for 416GB solid-state drive

Looks for E-Disk Altima product to replace parallel ATA storage systems

BitMicro Networks Inc. unveiled details of the first product in its next-generation E-Disk Altima flash solid state drive family on Tuesday at the Defence Systems & Equipment International Exhibition in London.
The new flash memory-based device will begin shipping by March 2008, the Fremont, Calif.-based company said.
Featuring capacities ranging from 4GB to 416GB, BitMicro's 2.5-in. E-Disk Altima E2A133BL ATA-133 model will be geared toward large sites looking to upgrade from systems based on Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment. The new solid-state hardware offers ATA/ATAPI-7 PATA specifications and supports PIO 0-4, DMA 0-2 and UDMA 0-6 data-transfer modes, according to BitMicro officials.
The new drive offers throughput of up to 133MB/sec. throughput, and read/write rates of up to 100MB/sec.
Analysts say that over the next few years, emerging solid-state drive technology is projected to rapidly gain adoption beyond the high-end of the disk drive market as its price tag drops. In July, Framingham, Mass.-based IDC released a report predicting that growing performance and mobility requirements will catapult solid-state storage revenues from $373 million in 2006 to $5.4 billion in 2011.
Overall, IDC said the new technology will likely have a significant impact in the PC industry as its use grows in notebook computers, whose manufacturers are increasingly seeking to meet user need for storage systems that are more durable and mobile storage than hard disk drives.
Pricing plans for the new device were not