It takes 20 minutes for NASA's communications with Curiosity to reach Mars (about 250 times slower than a 3G cell phone) making it impossible for scientists to navigate the robot in real-time. Future rovers could be implanted with a camera "brain" that will allow them to make decisions for themselves.
"We currently have a micromanaging approach to space exploration," senior researcher Kiri Wagstaff, a computer scientist and geologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said, an American Geophysical Union press release reported.
"While this suffices for our rovers on Mars, it works less and less well the further you get from the Earth. If you want to get ambitious and go to Europa and asteroids and comets, you need more and more autonomy to even make that feasible," she said.
Curiosity can already distinguish rocks from other objects, but the TextureCam will allow future rovers to analyze the objects to see if they are worth further investigation.
At the beginning of each Martian day, called a sol, researchers send Curiosity a "schedule" of what actions to make, such as movements, snapping pictures, and taking soil samples.
"Right now for the rovers, each day is planned out on Earth based on the images the rover took the previous day," Wagstaff said. "This is a huge limitation and one of the main bottlenecks for exploration with these spacecraft."
The camera takes 3D images and sends them to the robot's processor. The technology distinguishes if the camera is picking up "sand, rocks, [or] sky." If it finds a rock, the processor determines if it has layers, and is scientifically significant.
"If the rover itself could prioritize what's scientifically important, it would suddenly have the capability to take more images than it knows it can send back. That goes hand in hand with its ability to discover new things that weren't anticipated," Wagstaff said.
TextureCam passed the test in a trial run in the rocky California Mojave Desert. Researchers hope to one day use this technology on one of Jupiter's moons called Europa. The moon has been deemed a good candidate for hosting alien life forms.
