Mars Landers

I have a question that some may think is stupid, but how do the
landers know if they are rightside up when they stop bouncing and
rolling? And if they aren't, how do they get that way? I guess what
i'm asking is how do they know if their right side up after all of
that?

Thanks

In a car you have a little metal ball with contacts on a concaved surface.
it is used as a accelerometer for skid control.
you could us the same thing in the rover.

wrote in message
...
I have a question that some may think is stupid, but how do the
landers know if they are rightside up when they stop bouncing and
rolling? And if they aren't, how do they get that way? I guess what
i'm asking is how do they know if their right side up after all of
that?

Thanks

In a car you have a little metal ball with contacts on a concaved surface.
it is used as a accelerometer for skid control.
you could us the same thing in the rover.

wrote in message
...
I have a question that some may think is stupid, but how do the
landers know if they are rightside up when they stop bouncing and
rolling? And if they aren't, how do they get that way? I guess what
i'm asking is how do they know if their right side up after all of
that?

Thanks

In a car you have a little metal ball with contacts on a concaved surface.
it is used as a accelerometer for skid control.
you could us the same thing in the rover.

wrote in message
...
I have a question that some may think is stupid, but how do the
landers know if they are rightside up when they stop bouncing and
rolling? And if they aren't, how do they get that way? I guess what
i'm asking is how do they know if their right side up after all of
that?

Thanks

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 04:43:45 GMT, "Mark F." wrote:

In a car you have a little metal ball with contacts on a concaved surface.
it is used as a accelerometer for skid control.
you could us the same thing in the rover.

Explain further. That makes as much sense as you ride a skateboard,
you want to "ali" over the curb, all it takes is one to
"kick" the back of the skateboard to overcome the curb. Oh yeah, I
have a skid plate on the arse end of board. "Oh wait, I think I
landed on my head, call 911)........?

Am I missing something?

ulb



wrote in message
.. .
I have a question that some may think is stupid, but how do the
landers know if they are rightside up when they stop bouncing and
rolling? And if they aren't, how do they get that way? I guess what
i'm asking is how do they know if their right side up after all of
that?

Thanks

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 04:43:45 GMT, "Mark F." wrote:

In a car you have a little metal ball with contacts on a concaved surface.
it is used as a accelerometer for skid control.
you could us the same thing in the rover.

Explain further. That makes as much sense as you ride a skateboard,
you want to "ali" over the curb, all it takes is one to
"kick" the back of the skateboard to overcome the curb. Oh yeah, I
have a skid plate on the arse end of board. "Oh wait, I think I
landed on my head, call 911)........?

Am I missing something?

ulb



wrote in message
.. .
I have a question that some may think is stupid, but how do the
landers know if they are rightside up when they stop bouncing and
rolling? And if they aren't, how do they get that way? I guess what
i'm asking is how do they know if their right side up after all of
that?

Thanks

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 04:43:45 GMT, "Mark F." wrote:

In a car you have a little metal ball with contacts on a concaved surface.
it is used as a accelerometer for skid control.
you could us the same thing in the rover.

Explain further. That makes as much sense as you ride a skateboard,
you want to "ali" over the curb, all it takes is one to
"kick" the back of the skateboard to overcome the curb. Oh yeah, I
have a skid plate on the arse end of board. "Oh wait, I think I
landed on my head, call 911)........?

Am I missing something?

ulb



wrote in message
.. .
I have a question that some may think is stupid, but how do the
landers know if they are rightside up when they stop bouncing and
rolling? And if they aren't, how do they get that way? I guess what
i'm asking is how do they know if their right side up after all of
that?

Thanks

I have a question that some may think is stupid, but how do the
landers know if they are rightside up when they stop bouncing and
rolling? And if they aren't, how do they get that way? I guess what
i'm asking is how do they know if their right side up after all of
that?


The rovers have a device called an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit).
It's an electronic device that measures acceleration rates and
rotation rates along all 3 axis. It can tell which side is down by
looking at which direction martian gravity is pulling from.

It's actually a fairly neat algorithm that rights the rover when it
doesn't land base petal down. If it lands on one of the three side
petals, it retracts the airbags in a special order and then flips the
vehicle onto the base petal. If they landed on the top of the
tetrahedron (very low probability), the computer would open one petal
a little to cause the rover to fall on a side petal and then would run
the side petal algorithm. There are all kinds of things considered in
the algorithms... like if rocks get caught while retracting airbags,
etc...

I have a question that some may think is stupid, but how do the
landers know if they are rightside up when they stop bouncing and
rolling? And if they aren't, how do they get that way? I guess what
i'm asking is how do they know if their right side up after all of
that?


The rovers have a device called an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit).
It's an electronic device that measures acceleration rates and
rotation rates along all 3 axis. It can tell which side is down by
looking at which direction martian gravity is pulling from.

It's actually a fairly neat algorithm that rights the rover when it
doesn't land base petal down. If it lands on one of the three side
petals, it retracts the airbags in a special order and then flips the
vehicle onto the base petal. If they landed on the top of the
tetrahedron (very low probability), the computer would open one petal
a little to cause the rover to fall on a side petal and then would run
the side petal algorithm. There are all kinds of things considered in
the algorithms... like if rocks get caught while retracting airbags,
etc...

I have a question that some may think is stupid, but how do the
landers know if they are rightside up when they stop bouncing and
rolling? And if they aren't, how do they get that way? I guess what
i'm asking is how do they know if their right side up after all of
that?


The rovers have a device called an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit).
It's an electronic device that measures acceleration rates and
rotation rates along all 3 axis. It can tell which side is down by
looking at which direction martian gravity is pulling from.

It's actually a fairly neat algorithm that rights the rover when it
doesn't land base petal down. If it lands on one of the three side
petals, it retracts the airbags in a special order and then flips the
vehicle onto the base petal. If they landed on the top of the
tetrahedron (very low probability), the computer would open one petal
a little to cause the rover to fall on a side petal and then would run
the side petal algorithm. There are all kinds of things considered in
the algorithms... like if rocks get caught while retracting airbags,
etc...