One Small Spin

Начало книги

Cape Canaveral—NASA today announced the successful launch of Rover I, the first robotic interplanetary probe designed to fulfill NASA’s mandate to explore the Cosmos using “smaller, faster, and cheaper” technology. Rover I will conduct an exploration of the surface of Mars, achieving the same goals as a manned mission at a fraction of the cost.

Rover I Landing Site, Mars—Rover I rattled away from the pad of its lander, six wheels spinning almost effortlessly in the weak gravity, leaving small rooster-tails of fine red dust in its wake. A video camera mounted high on the front swiveled back and forth to transmit a view of its path to observers eagerly awaiting the news on Earth. Encountering a small patch of boulders lying like carelessly abandoned playing pieces from some mighty game of Martian marbles, Rover I consulted its navigation programming, then turned ninety degrees and surged ahead once more toward a smooth patch of sand. Hitting the smooth patch, its wheels began spinning faster, hurling greater spumes of red powder into the thin atmosphere. Pivoting, Rover I succeeded only in digging itself deeper into the sandy depression, all six wheels now buried up to the hubs in Martian “quicksand.” Halting at last, it sent a plaintive query back to Earth. Working across millions of kilometers, human technicians sent commands to rock back and forth, their efforts resulting in Rover I burying itself up to its axles in the soft red trap.

Читать дальше →