Visitors to the Mars rover Station’s website simply log in to the Mars Station computer and operate the remote rover!
The Rover located on Earth, at the Bareket observatory in Israel
A control panel interface allows the user to drive the rover, with an image panel showing the visitor the rover’s perspective of its environment.
The project is a part of GTTP ,GAM global astronomy month 2011 and the Bareket observatory's outreach educational activities.
As of 2015 the rover is open to the public during special events only.
A logbook records who has visited and the commands that have been issued to the rover. There is also a message window, through which users can send messages to each other.
If more than one user tries to connect at once, the software allows the visitors to take turns, giving control of the rover to one visitor at a time while allowing the other visitors to see through the rover’s camera and send messages to each other while they wait to drive.
Bareket observatory's Mars diorama - rover's view
Mars rover control panel.
Exploring the unknown environments is exciting! Visitors explore the 'Martian world' remotely, running the rover around to see what’s just beyond the field of view, or what’s behind that interesting rock.
They may also find out that controlling a rover from thousands of miles away is not as easy as driving a remote controlled car that you can see. From time to time - visitors will be offered challenges: discovering certain rocks, retrieving valuable samples, or safely traversing a rock-strewn plain.
Bareket observatory's Mars diorama - rover's view
The Mars Station is intended to give the public a sense of the challenge and excitement of exploring Mars using robotic rovers. The Mars tation consists of a small diorama of the Martian surface containing a robotic rover.
The rover can be controlled from a control panel interface on a computer, either locally or over the Internet.
Drivers are unable to see the rover; they can only see what the rover “sees” through its camera, just as mission scientists experience Mars through the sensory instruments on the NASA rovers. Kids and adults alike are eager to explore the environment, moving and turning the rover to see what’s behind (or over) that rock.
If the Mars rover camera shows a dark frame – it means that there is currently a night at the diorama site.
See also - Remote Telescope control via the web
Educators may also be interested to project the feed on their Planetarium dome using a Digital planetarium projectors
