Student-Designed NASA Rover Is associate degree 800-Pound, Solar-Powered Tank

Last year, satellite information showed ninety seven % of Greenland's surface ice had turned to slush in unseasonably heat weather. NASA needs to review phenomena like that to be told a lot of regarding why it's happening and also the rate at that it's happening, however victimization satellites or radar-equipped planes are often pricey.

So this is often the alternative: GROVER, associate degree engineering student-designed, lumbering, solar-powered 'bot which will before long roll across Kalaallit Nunaat to gather information on the dynamical ice sheet. The rover was engineered by teams of scholars at a physicist engineering bivouac. They approached physicist glaciologist Lora Koenig regarding building a rover to observe Greenland's ice sheets, and Koenig united to assist, eventually changing into the team's science consultant.

Short for Kalaallit Nunaat Rover and physicist Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and analysis, GROVER encompasses a ground-penetrating measuring device system on board that may monitor however snow is accumulating (or not), and hump cheaper than satellites or planes. it's going to prolong a check run beginning tomorrow, and keep there till June, autonomously reading information for glaciologists.

At 6-feet tall (with large star panels mounted on tank-like treads) and regarding 800 pounds, GROVER is not the sleekest rover, however it's going to roll on at one.2 miles per hour with a relentless stream of Arctic summer light-weight, permitting it to maneuver round the clock. And if it gets lonely, NASA plans on causing another rover next month, Cool Robot, to assist out.

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