This animation is the view enjoyed by the Remote Control Centre of the rover being tested in Chile's Atacama Desert during October 2013's five-day Sample ...
So while NASA's Curiosity zaps rocks with a laser to work out what they're
made of, ESA's SAFER will use geophysics. If it can autonomously navigate
its way across the terrain without having to be told where to drive by
Mission Control, so much the better - especially considering the data ping
time of 30 mins (15 each way) making real time control very difficult!
Unfortunately the budget won't extend to equipping it with a backhoe to dig
trenches to examine the features turned up by geophys :)
The European Space Agency 2018 rover to be send to mars (Exomars) will be
equipped with a unique drilling system. If it can land on mars with success
(the 2016 mission will test the landing system on mars) then it will take
samples 2 meters below the surface. Moving from location to location.
Bringing them back up and perform extensive analysis of these samples with
it`s on-board instruments.
If I recall correctly, NASA was hoping to implement an even more advanced
AI system that would allow Curiosity to suggest interesting objects in it's
vicinity to explore and navigate to then to automatically do it after
confirmation from command, I was thinking though that this would be later
in it's mission when it gets further south in the crater.
Does this rover include a 360 degree camera? When i was doing site planning
work we took 360 degree photos with a camera pointed up and a special
mirror that provided a full panoramic view. Could this be done?
curiosity has some AI. then they just send the commands to her smth like go
from point a to point b and she figures out the best route avoiding any
obstacles. smth like that
guys, seriously!! please, audio comment videos like this one!!! check out
nasa's videos. they always put a short story with details behind the
animation.