Marsokhod is a small planetary rover that looks like a cross between an insect and a monster truck. Its Russian-made chassis has six barrel-like wheels on three independent axles and a mechanical arm developed by McDonnell Douglas. But the neatest thing about it is the pair of video cameras that transmit a real-time, color, stereo video signal that can be synched into a helmet anywhere. When you strap on the helmet and grab the remote controls, you are virtually "in the driver's seat."
Marsokhod is an ongoing joint project between McDonnell Douglas, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Russia's Lavochkin Association, and the University of Hawaii. If all goes well in Washington (where NASA's budget is perennially under siege), Marsokhod, or one of its offspring, could land on the moon within the next several years, as the third mission in NASA's Discovery program.
And once the scientists have their turn, John Garvey - project manager for planetary systems at McDonnell Douglas - says lucky students will be able to control the vehicle from a classroom using a cable TV connection, a modem, and a PC. In fact, just such a link took place last summer when McDonnell Douglas wired a Santa Ana, California, high school to the rover at NASA's Ames Research Center a few hundred miles north, in Mountain View. As Garvey points out, there is no better way to excite students about science than to let them take a cruise on the moon.
To find pictures from the rover's tests on earth, ftp to artemis.arc.nasa.gov under amboy. For more info, e-mail John Garvey at garvey@apt.mdc.com.
ELECTRIC WORD
Moon Roaming by PC
