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Telepresence and the Exploration of Mars
| Article
# : |
20291 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1992 |
2,582 Words |
| Author
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Seth Shostak
Seth Shostak, who currently resides in Mountain View,
California, has spent most of his career as a research radio
astronomer. |
It's still an hour until bedtime, and young Timothy figures he has plenty of time to continue exploring the Martian landscape. Timothy is at the bottom of the Valles Marineris, a 2,000-mile-long canyon. He can see the gorge's rugged flanks curve abruptly over the nearby horizon. A weak sun burns overhead as Timothy turns to survey the rust-colored landscape. He spies an interesting field of rocks near the sunlit southern wall and moves swiftly toward it.
The stones are smooth, as if rounded by running water. Timothy bends his head for a closer look. Several of the rocks are broken, and he reaches a gloved hand to pick up one of the fragments. Along its split edge he sees the overlapping spiderlike patterns of ancient organisms: fossils from three billion years ago, when Mars was still a planet with life . . .
Science fiction? A dream? Perhaps a new video game? Well, Timothy's recreational exploration of the red planet is a little bit of all three. Nonetheless, it is a scenario that NASA is working to make possible.
NASA scientists are developing a technology referred to as telepresence. As the name implies, telepresence purports to extend our senses, to give us the illusion of being somewhere we are not. Stated another way, telepresence puts our eyes, ears, and hands on long springs; in Timothy's case, on springs that are 30 million miles long. Unlike with present-day space probes, where we are passive observers of two-dimensional pictures of distant planets, a telepresence probe would give us the capability to almost personally interact with these distant worlds.
For scientists, the new technology is more than a high-tech stunt. It may be a crucial argument in justifying manned reconnaissance of the planets. NASA is currently fielding an ambitious plan, the Space Exploration Initiative, to return to the moon and thereafter launch a manned mission to Mars. But if we do send humans to the surface of the red planet, it should be for a thorough, scientific survey. Mars is too far, and getting there is too expensive, to justify a simple flag planting ceremony--or even explorations of the kind carried out by the Apollo lunar missions.
The problem, then, is to survey the Martian surface in detail without sending large numbers of people. The logistics of supplying hundreds of astronauts with oxygen, water, and food are formidable at best. But the use of telepresence could obviate all that. This exciting new technology could even allow
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