Haughton Crater in the Canadian High Arctic, the field site for HORSE
Study Objective:
Seeking to understand how to explore distant locations by remote means, the Human Operated Robotic Science Evaluation Project (HORSE) field staff transmitted live panoramic images from the Canadian high Arctic to FutureFlight CentralÙs 360-degree tower screens, thus connecting by satellite a field team with several geologists at FutureFlight.
As part of the effort to prepare for eventual Mars exploration, the research team sought to understand ways to increase the scientific productivity of Mars surface exploration through the use of robotic rovers.
The HORSE experiment compared three conditions: baseline data collected by a geologist in the field last year; remotely obtained data, and time-limited data, emulating what might be obtained by a human in a spacesuit prototype.
In the field, all terrain vehicles (ATVs) operated by humans obeying remote commands stood in for the robotic rovers. The scientists at Ames, using written instructions, directed the movement of the all terrain vehicles in order to collect panoramic, standard and close-up digital views. Each remote image increased understanding of the local geological features, providing a basis for further field exploration.
To complete the experiment, a geologist in the field, wearing a spacesuit prototype surveyed the identical three sites visited by the remotely directed field staff.
HORSE field staff preparing to transmit images to FutureFlight
Return of the data from the remote sites was a complex task involving the Ames Mobile Exploration System computing and wireless communications infrastructure and a satellite link provided by Simon Fraser University and the Communication Research Centre of Canada.
When the digital images reached FutureFlight Central, they were uploaded to its supercomputer, SGI's Onyx 2 Reality Monster. A script was written to detect new images, make necessary modifications, and then, in near real-time, display them in the tower cab.
Since 1997, geologists and biologists from the Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) have been studying the Haughton Crater located on Devon Island in the Canadian High Arctic, 180 kilometers northeast of Resolute Bay, near Greenland.
Researchers have chosen this site because it is an unusually good Mars analog, a well preserved meteorite impact crater in what is today a frigid, glaciated region with thick underlying permafrost. The conditions there approximate those of the Mars environment at present or earlier in its history. Over the last four years researchers have been working to characterize the sparse biology of the crater to understand how life can re-colonize the devastated environment following an impact event.
FutureFlight Central gave the science team a total immersive experience so that the science team was, in effect, virtually present at the field site.
-- Brian Glass, NASA Ames Project Manager, HORSE
Our science team found that the panoramic perspective of FutureFlight Central provided them with excellent situational awareness.
-- Geoffrey Briggs, Principal Investigator, HORSE Project
Based on observational studies in the tower cab, improvements to the software may include more navigational, image processing, and rock/soil sample cataloging tools.
This research also demonstrated an alternative use of FutureFlight Centrals 360-degree visual display system. Furthermore, the ability of the facility to receive and display remote-sensing data represents a building block toward a potential future in which real air traffic control could be enhanced using virtual technology.
HORSE Researchers in the FutureFlight Central tower cab view an image transmitted from the Canadian High Arctic