Re:Looking for life on other planets? Go deep
by vkou on Wednesday July 20, 2016 @02:25PM
(#12131305)
This is actually one of the few scientific reasons to send a human to Mars. (Or at least, low Mars orbit.) Cave teleoperation with a seven-minute delay is completely infeasible, but teleoperation with a few-second delay would work much better.
You could deal with the wireless communication problem by having the robot be tethered - I think a human could figure out how to drive said robot, without snagging the cable. This could even be done from low Mars orbit, reducing mission cost, and the risk to human life.
Re:Looking for life on other planets? Go deep
by rosser on Wednesday July 20, 2016 @08:18PM
(#12133621)
As true as all of that may be, I don't think it's politically viable to send people to Mars orbit, without putting at least one of the mission crew's footprints in its regolith.
You could deal with the wireless communication problem by having the robot be tethered - I think a human could figure out how to drive said robot, without snagging the cable. This could even be done from low Mars orbit, reducing mission cost, and the risk to human life.