How Perseverance drives itself around Mars

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

The Planetary Society

Science, Technology

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2021

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Perseverance rover’s chief robotics engineer takes us for a spin across Mars.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The smartest robot on Mars, this week on Planetary Radio.
0:07.2	Welcome, I'm At Kaplan of the Planetary Society, with more of a human adventure across
0:14.6	our solar system and beyond.
0:17.4	Vandy Verma started loving robots as a kid and never stopped.
0:22.5	Now she leads robotic operations for the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover.
0:28.2	She'll tell us how the six-wheeled explorer is driving across the red planet with the
0:32.8	help of what's called auto-nav.
0:34.8	We'll also take a deep dive into the intricate process of sample collection by the rover.
0:41.8	Space shuttle orbiters are big.
0:44.4	It's hard to believe that Bruce Betts and I overlook them in the What's Up Space Trivia
0:48.6	contest, but we did.
0:50.5	Find out what I'm talking about just before Bruce offers a new contest in this week's
0:55.8	episode.
0:57.3	I'll go to headlines from our weekly newsletter, the downlink in a moment.
1:00.8	First though, I have an invitation for you.
1:03.9	You can join me, Bill and I, Bruce Betts and others for the online premiere of a wonderful
1:09.3	new documentary about the ongoing mission of Light Sale 2.
1:14.4	Our watch party for Sailing the Light is set for 10am Pacific 1700 UTC on Saturday, August
1:21.9	28th.
1:28.5	Leading the headlines this week is a still unfolding mystery on Mars.
1:33.5	As we publish this episode, scientists and engineers, no doubt including this week's
1:38.0	guest, Vandy Verma, are working out why Perseverance came up empty-handed or more precisely
	...

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