Mars Robot May Observe Asteroid Impact

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Monday, January 14th, 2008

Scientists at NASA’s Near Earth Object Program updated the odds of asteroid 2007 WD5 impacting on Mars from 1 in 350 to 1 in 75. If the asteroid hits, the impact will likely be in the area that Mars rover Opportunity is in. The robot is believed to be outside the immediate impact zone so it should be able to safely observe the explosion that would result from the asteroid hitting at 13.5 km/s, releasing the equivalent of 3 MT of TNT. The resulting crater could be a half a mile wide. Impacts of this size are estimated to occur only once every one thousand years. The impact would occur near the end of January 2008. Data from additional observatories is being gathered now and scientists hope to calculate an updated trajectory that will tell them whether or not the asteroid will hit Mars. For more details see the NEO report or the JPL orbital diagram for 2007 WD5 (requires Java).

Yikes. It will really be a tough way for Opportunity to die, if this does happen. I really hope it doesn’t, but I also do. We could learn a lot more about asteroids if it did land on Mars… but then Opportunity will be moondust! Either way, only time will tell what will happen!

Link.

Tags: Opportunity, Mars, asteroid

Posted in: News, Other News.

WowWee Robots

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Monday, January 14th, 2008

WowWee, a popular robot company, released a few new robots a while ago!

Here is a pic of three of them:

I really like the one with three wheels a lot.

Get more info here!

Tags: WowWee, robots, cute

Posted in: News, Robot News.

This robot can BIKE!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Monday, January 14th, 2008

This robot, 50cm and about 5kg can cycle around on a bike! There are three sensors inside the robot, one of which is a gyro. My guess is that there is an acellerometer in there too.

According to Murata Electronics (M) Sdn Bhd managing director Osamu Onishi, the robot is able to stabilise itself using a rotating disc built into its body.

Neat stuff! I wonder how it starts and stops though? Not to mention, get up when it falls? And, is it NOT wearing a helmet?! :O Big no-no…

Link.

Tags: robot, bike

Posted in: News, Robot News.

2008!

Posted by Erin, the RobotGrrl on Sunday, January 6th, 2008

Happy new year everyone!

I haven’t blogged in a very long time.

I didn’t do much this break, other than de-stress.

I went skiing at Mont Blanc… surprisingly, it really sucked! Grassy patches from the snowboarders, and TONS of ice! I cannot say that I wasn’t surprised. Plus, the people there were just plain rude. We got cut in line for their chairlifts, people just blatently bomb the hill and think they are the best skiers in the world, and almost got ran over 6 times! The slopes weren’t challenging enough, either. A lot of people make fun of Ontario’s ski hills- but the one that I went to all the time, Hockley Valley, was only at the most 30 minutes away from where I lived. It was really fun. When you skiied the backside of the mountain, you could just ski non-stop. No wait for the chairlift! And, it was a new squishy chair lift. They also had T-bars. Mont Blanc didn’t have T-bars, which also surprised me! What do the people do that are afraid of heights? Anyway, I’m just generally disappointed at this ‘Mont Blanc’. Next time we stick to the more english hills. February we plan to ski every weekend!

The view from Mont Blanc ^

What else have I been doing? Thinking about studying, but not really doing anything. We have a week to review anyway! Plus, what do tests REALLY measure? The amount of stress you can go through to try to memorize the entire book? How much you depend on outside resources? I just find it’s a really lame way to see if someone understands something. If there was a way to view the pictures in one’s mind when we talk about a topic, I could see that as being fair. I know that I think in pictures, and probably many more people do!

Hmph.

Tags: rant, school, Mont Blanc

Posted in: News, Other News.