The many personalities of NASA’s Mars rovers

In January 2004, two rovers opened their eyes for the primary time on Mars. They had been an identical twin robots with the identical purpose: to seek for indicators of previous water within the rocks and minerals. However like all set of twins, they developed distinct personalities, formed by their completely different environments and circumstances.

Alternative — or Oppy, because it was affectionately referred to as by the mission crew — instantly discovered proof for historical water whereas Spirit looked for years to find the identical. Oppy coated a marathon’s distance with relative ease; Spirit busted a wheel and limped backward. Close to the equator, Oppy was exploring 12 months spherical; farther south, Spirit needed to hunker down for every chilly, darkish martian winter. When Oppy obtained caught within the sand, it struggled however obtained free. When Spirit obtained caught within the sand, it struggled and struggled … after which winter got here, and it died.

As a graduate scholar, I used to be a part of the mission science crew for each rovers, serving to with their day-to-day operations. We talked about them as in the event that they had been completely different folks: Oppy was the golden little one, and Spirit needed to battle for all the pieces. I liked them each, however I appreciated Spirit higher — the child had moxie.

Personifying Spirit and Oppy was simple to do as a result of they had been designed to be like us in some methods. Their science cameras had a decision equal to twenty/20 human imaginative and prescient and had been positioned on the common top of an individual’s eyes. Their robotic arms had been the size of a protracted human arm, with shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints. They usually had been so darn cute, with these huge, spherical doe eyes.