From: lishka@cernvax.cern.ch (christopher lishka) Subject: Re: INDUSTRY: NASA develops "telepresence" for exploration (Forwarded) Date: 6 Feb 92 09:31:47 GMT Organization: CERN, Geneva, Switzerland In daver@sunspot.ssl.berkeley.edu (David Ray) writes: >There is such a long delay for radio waves (or any e/m waves) >to get to the moon or Mars that I can't see how there could >be any useful "feedback". It takes over 2 seconds to the >moon and back, and over 15 minutes to Mars and back. How can >a person wearing a headset be able to steer a vehicle, or >"feel" an object's texture with such a long delay? The answer is in the original article. It sounds to me like they recognize that the transmission time between planets is indeed too long, so they are not going to use it for that. Instead, the following paragraph from the original article explains it: "When we begin to explore Mars, it won't be easy for the astronauts to travel far from their base to gain access to the whole planet," said Dr. Geoffrey Briggs, Scientific Director of the new Center for Mars Exploration at NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif. "Telepresence will allow humans to project themselves, by way of a suitably equipped robot, into a remote environment without endangering themselves. It's a very powerful research technique." The key phrase is "gain access to the whole planet." It sounds like the researchers are assuming that humans will be up on Mars at their base using telepresence to connect to robots roaming around the planet. On the other hand, the base could be in outer space orbiting Mars as well .oO Chris Oo. -- Christopher Lishka PPE Division, CERN This is a planet full of traffic lights lishka@cernvax.cern.ch And traffic light abuse! -- (unknown) vxaluw::lishka