NASA tests future moon landing robots on Canada's fake moon site

NASA is testing two new robots designed to for future moon landings in a crater in Canada, both of which are equipped with some high end kit designed to analyze their surroundings. Loaded up with "GPS, stereo cameras, laser scanners and sun trackers," the K10 Black and K10 Red can laser map terrain over 3,000 feet away, and fire radar into the ground and detect features up to 16.4 feet down. Running on regular laptop batteries, the robots are able to cover over 120 acres of ground and operate for up to five hours at a time, providing far more information than the restricted space-suit wearing astronauts are able to gather. Now all NASA's gotta do is get the robots onto the moon by the around-2020 date that the adminstration keeps mentioning.

[Via The Register]

[Meltz; @ Jul 21st 2007 10:06PM]

so is the "fake moon site" just a big parking lot?

[HyperHacker @ Aug 8th 2007 7:03PM]

Wal-mart.

[Will @ Jul 21st 2007 10:11PM]

Isn't "GPS" rather reliant on a network of satellites around the planet? I can't imagine it would work on the moon very well. Any guesses as to how a moon navigation system might work?

[HyperHacker @ Aug 8th 2007 7:04PM]

A network of satellites around the moon?

[Dave @ Jul 21st 2007 10:23PM]

lol laptop batteries, its a freaken bomb

[JohnTitor @ Jul 21st 2007 10:34PM]

is this fake moon site the same one they used to stage the moon landing?

[joe @ Jul 21st 2007 10:57PM]

Dude your a fucking moron if you think the Moon landings were faked.

[Will @ Jul 21st 2007 11:04PM]

Actually, it wasn't just the landing. The whole moon is fake. God made it to test your faith. Just like all of the fake dinosaur bones.

[Todd @ Jul 21st 2007 11:06PM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Moon_Landing_hoax_accusations

...I guess the real point of contention for me is the Van Allen radiation belt. No lead was used to line the walls of any of the capsules or the LEMs. The Astronauts sat "cooking" in that much radiation for a week? WTF?

[JohnTitor @ Jul 21st 2007 11:25PM]

try this link it got more
http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicapollo.html

[R. C. @ Jul 22nd 2007 12:00AM]

And while we're at wikipedia:

"Proponents of the Apollo Moon Landing Hoax allegations have argued that space travel to the moon is impossible because the Van Allen radiation would kill or incapacitate an astronaut who made the trip. James Van Allen himself dismissed these ideas. In practice, Apollo astronauts who traveled to the moon spent very little time in the belts and would have received a harmless dose [6]. Nevertheless NASA said that they deliberately timed Apollo launches, and used lunar transfer orbits that only skirted the edge of the belt over the equator to minimize the radiation. Astronauts who visited the moon would probably have a slightly higher risk of cancer during their lifetimes."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belts

[Constable Odo @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:30AM]

I doubt it. I think the real faked moon landing was done on a Hollywood-type set. I'd heard they used the same blue screen technology as was used in Star Wars. If you look really close though, you can just barely see the wires when the astronauts were leaping about.

When they eventually have the fake Mars landing, the landing scene will look a lot more realistic thanks to the advances in computer-generated scenes. I'm sort of anxious to hear what the first astronaut that steps on fake Martian soil says. Maybe something amusing like, "I'll be the first man to eat a Mars Bar on Mars." Look for a bunch of Martian rocks on eBay when they return from the fake journey.

Nobody would be foolish enough to spend a year in space unprotected from solar radiation. They'd be riddled with cancer in no time at all.

[Xander @ Jul 22nd 2007 4:42AM]

then how come they bounce a laser off of a mirror left there basically every day? http://physics.ucsd.edu/~tmurphy/apollo/apollo.html

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 22nd 2007 5:42PM]

Now now.

Let's not lets facts go screwing up everyone's fun!

[REDbULL Runner @ Jul 21st 2007 11:12PM]

I hope those laptop batterys aren't made by sony.

[Taylor @ Jul 21st 2007 11:27PM]

@Todd:

"...I guess the real point of contention for me is the Van Allen radiation belt. No lead was used to line the walls of any of the capsules or the LEMs. The Astronauts sat "cooking" in that much radiation for a week? WTF?"

The Apollo 11 astronauts got through the Van Allen radiation belt in half an hour.

[Sauerkraut @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:23AM]

I knew those Canadians were Aliens!

[HyperHacker @ Aug 8th 2007 7:07PM]

He's discovered our secret, eh? Release the beavers!

[supermeerkat @ Jul 22nd 2007 3:42AM]

Bart Sibrel, one of the leading faked arguements proponents, has difficulty with some basic facts of the moon landings as well as being a stalker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Sibrel

[Xander @ Jul 22nd 2007 4:42AM]

and the point of having GPS for MARS is?????

[bones @ Jul 22nd 2007 5:42AM]

umm...I'm surprised nobody's brought up the fact that we've already _been_ there. The point of this "mission" is...what again? To re-map the moon? Perhaps to discover a previously unknown civilization thriving 16.5 feet below the surface? Hell, I can google map Mars sitting on my ass at home. How many million/billions will be blown to gain an incremental advance in knowledge while kids down on boring ol' Earth go without textbooks or healthcare? Super.

[Foebea @ Jul 22nd 2007 5:54AM]

well... SOME of us want to be loonies and hurl boulders at the earth until they meet our demainds of independence.

[bones @ Jul 22nd 2007 7:07AM]

Well sonny, point them thar moon rocks towards 38° 53' 55.133"N, 77° 02' 15.691W

[strider_mt2k @ Jul 23rd 2007 5:25PM]

I think Dubbya wants us there before the Chinese get all the good real estate.

[Ignacio @ Jul 22nd 2007 1:57PM]

No 3G? I'll wait for the 2.0 revision.

[Albert van Breemen @ Jul 26th 2007 3:06AM]

Robots should be smart enough not to be fooled that they are on a parking lot i.s.o. the moon!

Albert
---
Visit http://www.personalrobotics.nl for robot movies.

[rimtech @ Oct 20th 2007 10:42AM]

it is located near sudbury, ontario... the sudbury basin is where they are referring.