Curiosity Rover To Get On-The-Go Photo Capability

Curiosity Rover To Get On-The-Go Photo Capability - Government - Mobile & Wireless - Informationweek: "As NASA's Curiosity rover crawls along the surface of Mars, at distances of up to 40 yards per day, its mast-mounted camera scans the surface for rocks of interest. As a next step, the space agency plans to deploy software that makes it easier to target and capture images without stopping along the way.

The software, called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS), will let the rover look for rocks of a certain size, shape, or brightness. "The idea is, when it's doing a long drive, a scientist can say, 'Oh, if you see this type of rock in the middle of this drive or at the end of the drive, go ahead and take some high-quality, high-resolution images of it before the rover moves past," said Tara Estlin, a senior member of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Artificial Intelligence Group and AEGIS project leader. Earlier this week, Curiosity parked in front of a football-size rock, which it photographed. NASA scientists plan to use the rover's spectrometer to determine the rock's composition."