Anúncio
O regresso dos rovers robots
Protótipo do rover marciano europeu visita o Paranal
14 de Outubro de 2013
No início de outubro de 2013, o deserto do Atacama serviu para simular Marte durante uma semana, quando uma equipa de cientistas e engenheiros visitou o lugar para testar um protótipo de um rover marciano.
O local de teste situa-se perto do Observatório do Paranal do ESO e foi escolhido por ter um clima inóspito e se parecer fisicamente com o planeta vermelho. Adicionalmente, o deserto do Atacama é conhecido pelo seu solo virtualmente estéril, essencialmente devido à falta de humidade na região: o que torna este sítio particularmente adaptado para simular o ambiente sem vida de Marte.
Os recentes testes no Chile foram efectuados com um rover chamado Bridget (fornecido pela Astrium, Stevenage no Reino Unido), no âmbito dos testes de campo SAFER (acrónimo do inglês para Sample Acquisition Field Experiment with a Rover). A missão da ESA ExoMars prevista para 2018 foi a missão de referência para o teste.
O projeto visa dar à equipa científica experiência em primeira mão da operação remota de rovers e adquirir dados de campo durante o teste com três instrumentos. A operação do rover foi executada de modo tão próximo quanto possível de uma missão real, tanto para a equipa científica como para o centro de controlo remoto. Testes paralelos estão a ocorrer a partir do centro de controlo remoto do Reino Unido, com sede no Satellite Applications Catapult Centre em Harwell.
Os três instrumentos testados foram o CLUPI, uma câmara de grande plano equivalente a uma lente de mão que um geólogo usa para examinar todos os pormenores nas rochas, um emulador de uma câmara panorâmica chamado AUPE-2 e um grupo de radares penetrantes chamados WISDOM, que fornecerão imagens detalhadas da estrutura da sub-superfície de Marte.
Para tornar mais real a missão simulada, a equipa utilizou igualmente um veículo aéreo não tripulado para sondar a região a partir do ar, que forneceu um modelo de elevação digital e que ajudou a equipa a navegar o rover. É deste mesmo modo que os dados são adquiridos a partir da órbita de Marte.
Esta não é a primeira vez que a paisagem inóspita chilena foi usada como campo de testes para os exploradores robóticos marcianos - já em junho de 2012 um rover tinha visitado o Paranal e em junho de 2013 a Universidade Carnegie Mellon e o Instituto SETI (acrónimo do inglês para Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) enviaram ao local um rover movido a energia solar chamado Zoe, para testar instrumentos usados na detecção de micróbios em ambientes extremos.
Os testes de campo SAFER estão a ser dirigidos pelo Directorate of Technical and Quality Management da ESA, com a equipa internacional industrial liderada pelo Conselho de Infraestruturas Científicas e Tecnológicas do Reino Unido RAL Space. A equipa inclui ainda a Astrium, a Universidade de Aberystwyth, Scisys, Investigação Joanneum na Áustria, o Instituto de Exploração Espacial na Suíça, o Laboratório Mullard de Ciências Espaciais da University College London, a Universidade de Leicester e o laboratório de investigação LATMOS do Centro Nacional de Investigação Científica francês.
A atividade está a ser financiada pelo Programa de Investigação Tecnológica Básica da ESA, com fundos adicionais da Agência Espacial do Reino Unido.
Contactos
Sarah Smart
Head of Communications, RAL Space
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Didcot, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 1 235 445 742
Telm: +44 783 763 4683
Email: sarah.smart@stfc.ac.uk
Richard Hook
ESO, Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Telm: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
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