Thursday, April 25, 1996
Vehicle for Mars exploration
BEHREND-Dr. Henry
Stone, technical manager of
automation and control at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif., will speak in
"Designing a Microßover to
Explore Mars" at Penn State
Erie, The Behrend College, on
Saturday, April 27 at 12:45
p.m. in the Reed Lecture Hall
located in Reed Union
Building. Stone will appear as
the keynote speaker for Penn
State-Behrend's Research and
Industrial Senior Projects '96,
planned to showcase the efforts
of seniors graduating in
mechanical engineering
technology, mechanical
engineering, electrical
engineering technology,
electrical engineering, and
plastics engineering
technology.
The lecture, and
presentations which will run
form 8:30 a.m. until 12:30
p.m. in the Nick Building, are
free and open to the public.
Stone's presentation will
include photographs of the
actual flight rover, the Lander,
the spacecraft, and. a short
videotape.
NASA will launch the Mars
Pathfinder Spacecraft from
Cape Canaveral and place it on
a trajectory for Mars, scheduled
to land in July of 1997. Stone
will supervise the engineering
team responsible - for• the
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control and operation of the
vehicle on Mars, as well as
analysis of the data retrieved.
The spacecraft, which weighs
approximately 450. kg, will
include an 11 kg, six wheeled
robotic vehicle known as
Sojourner. Able to freely
navigate about the surface of
Mars, this vehicle will enable
scientists the deploy
instruments and collect data at
specific locations beyond the
reach of the lander. Sojourner
will perform a wide variety 'of
technological experiments
ranging from analysis of the
mechanical properties of the
Martian terrain to the
evaluation of the rover's unique
mobility, hazard avoidance, and
navigation systems. These
results will be crucial to the
design of future planetary
rovers, particularly those
envisioned within NASA's
Mars Exploration Program.
According to Stone, the
designing and building of the
Sojourner vehicle has been an
extremely challenging one.
The vehicle needs to be capable
of dealing with hazards such as
rocks, ditches, and the Martian
terrain with a temperature
which varies between -110 C/-
170 F and 0 C/32 F each day.
The designers had to develop
new methods and materials for
protecting sensitive electronics
agaipat thermal damage, new
Graduates must report to the ground floor of Erie Hall no later than 11:00
a.m. on May 11 for graduation.
If in doubt whether graduation will be held outdoors at 12 noon (one
ceremony) or indoors at 12 noon and 2:30 p.m. (two ceremonies), a
receptionist will be on duty beginning at 6:30 a.m. on the day of
graduation, May 11, at 898-6000 to answer questions.
Attention Seniors! ! ! 25 - Thursday 26 - Friday
The Penn State Behrend Lion
Ambassadors are sponsoring the
Fourth Annual Zero Year Intervarsity Christian Fellowship
Reunion (ZYR) to be held Friday, Take Back the BandlChoir Room
6:30 - 8:00 pm Unity Picnic at the Wilson
April 26 from 4-6 p.m. in the Night March Picnic Grove
,
apartment quad. You have
worked hard these past four years. Perry Square German Club 1:00 pm
12:30 pm Free Food & Drink
So, come out and enjoy a BBQ, Reed 114 Sponsored by ABC
refreshments, DJ entertainment, Biology Club
prizes, and relax...on us! ZYR is Reed 3
open to graduating seniors only
5:30 pm
(seventh semester and above) ,
H. , to see ou there!
27 - Sunday
News
Spaced Invaders: No, it isn't a galaxy far far away--well, almost. Ws an artist's rendition of
Sojourner and Mkxoßover, the topic for key note speaker Henry Stone. Stone wil give
lecture as part of the Research and Industrial Senior Projects '96.
algorithms for navigating and
detecting obstacles, techniques
for operating with a very
limited mount of power, and
Student Events
29 - Monday
means for packaging an entire
spacecraft into a vehicle the
size of a bread box.
For more information on the
30 - Tuesday
lecture, call the Penn State-
Behrend School of Engineering
and Engineering Technology at
898-6153.
27 - Saturday
1- Wednesday
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