In 2003, NASA launched two Mars Exploration Rovers named "Spirit" and "Opportunity" on a voyage of discovery to the Red Planet. Both Rovers had a projected lifetime of just 90 days in which to collect scientific data and photographs. The Rovers excelled in every respect and worked on the Martian surface for many years. This book is the third volume in a series which records the exploration of the Rover "Opportunity". This volume records the period from when Opportunity had arrived at Victoria Crater, it's explorations into the crater and it's departure from Victoria heading for Endeavour Crater. These volumes are created from the sol by sol (day to day) logs provided t us all by the NASA web sites along with the photographs taken by the different cameras on Opportunity.

Beginning with the landing of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers in 2004 and concluding with the end of the Curiosity mission in 2014, this second volume of The International Atlas of Mars Exploration continues the story of Mars exploration in spectacular detail. It is an essential reference source on Mars and its moons, combining scientific and historical data with detailed and unique illustrations to provide a thorough analysis of twenty-first-century Mars mission proposals, spacecraft operations, landing site selection and surface locations. Combining a wealth of data, facts and illustrations, most created for this volume, the atlas charts the history of modern Mars exploration in more detail than ever before. Like the first volume, the atlas is accessible to space enthusiasts, but the bibliography and meticulous detail make it a particularly valuable resource for academic researchers and students working in planetary science and planetary mapping.

In 2003, NASA launched two Mars Exploration Rovers named "Spirit" & "Opportunity" on a voyage of discovery to the Red Planet. Both Rovers had a projected lifetime on Mars of just 90 days in which to collect scientific data and photographs. The Rovers excelled in every respect and worked on the Martian surface for many years. This book is the first volume in a series which records the exploration of the Rover "Opportunity". This volume records the period from the launch in 2003 to the time when Opportunity emerged from its travels in Endurance Crater at the end of 2004. These volumes are created from the sol by sol (day by day) logs provided to us all by the NASA web sites along with the photographs taken by the different cameras on Opportunity. All profits from this series of books will be donated to third world projects.

The 12th annual RoboCup International Symposium was held during July 15–18, 2008 in conjunction with RoboCup 2008 Competitions and Demonstrations. The symposium represents the core meeting for the presentation and discussion of sci- tific contributions in diverse areas related to the main threads within RoboCupSoccer, RoboCupRescue, RoboCup@Home and RoboCupJunior. Its scope encompassed, but was not restricted to, research and education activities within the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics. A fundamental aspect of RoboCup is promoting science and technology among young students and researchers, in addition to providing a forum for discussion and excitement about Robotics with practitioners from all over the world. Since its first edition in 1997 in Nagoya, the RoboCup Competitions and Symposium have attracted an increasing number of researchers and students from all the world and today it is a major event in robotics worldwide. Due to its interdisciplinary nature and the exploration of various and intimate c- nections of theory and practice across a wide spectrum of different fields, the sym- sium offered an excellent opportunity to introduce new techniques to various scientific disciplines. The experimental, interactive and benchmark character of the RoboCup initiative created the opportunity to present, learn and evaluate novel ideas and - proaches with significant potential. If promising, they are then rapidly adopted and field-tested by a large (and still strongly growing) community.

What it's like to explore Mars from Earth: How the Mars rovers provide scientists with a virtual experience of being on Mars. Geologists in the field climb hills and hang onto craggy outcrops; they put their fingers in sand and scratch, smell, and even taste rocks. Beginning in 2004, however, a team of geologists and other planetary scientists did field science in a dark room in Pasadena, exploring Mars from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) by means of the remotely operated Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). Clustered around monitors, living on Mars time, painstakingly plotting each movement of the rovers and their tools, sensors, and cameras, these scientists reported that they felt as if they were on Mars themselves, doing field science. The MER created a virtual experience of being on Mars. In this book, William Clancey examines how the MER has changed the nature of planetary field science. Drawing on his extensive observations of scientists in the field and at the JPL, Clancey investigates how the design of the rover mission enables field science on Mars, explaining how the scientists and rover engineers manipulate the vehicle and why the programmable tools and analytic instruments work so well for them. He shows how the scientists felt not as if they were issuing commands to a machine but rather as if they were working on the red planet, riding together in the rover on a voyage of discovery. Learn more about the book here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZQSWSZnTYs&feature=youtube_gdata

This book gathers the proceedings of the 15th IFToMM World Congress, which was held in Krakow, Poland, from June 30 to July 4, 2019. Having been organized every four years since 1965, the Congress represents the world’s largest scientific event on mechanism and machine science (MMS). The contributions cover an extremely diverse range of topics, including biomechanical engineering, computational kinematics, design methodologies, dynamics of machinery, multibody dynamics, gearing and transmissions, history of MMS, linkage and mechanical controls, robotics and mechatronics, micro-mechanisms, reliability of machines and mechanisms, rotor dynamics, standardization of terminology, sustainable energy systems, transportation machinery, tribology and vibration. Selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, they highlight numerous exciting advances and ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster new multidisciplinary collaborations.

In the years since the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and Opportunity first began transmitting images from the surface of Mars, we have become familiar with the harsh, rocky, rusty-red Martian landscape. But those images are much less straightforward than they may seem to a layperson: each one is the result of a complicated set of decisions and processes involving the large team behind the Rovers. With Seeing Like a Rover, Janet Vertesi takes us behind the scenes to reveal the work that goes into creating our knowledge of Mars. Every photograph that the Rovers take, she shows, must be processed, manipulated, and interpreted—and all that comes after team members negotiate with each other about what they should even be taking photographs of in the first place. Vertesi’s account of the inspiringly successful Rover project reveals science in action, a world where digital processing uncovers scientific truths, where images are used to craft consensus, and where team members develop an uncanny intimacy with the sensory apparatus of a robot that is millions of miles away. Ultimately, Vertesi shows, every image taken by the Mars Rovers is not merely a picture of Mars—it’s a portrait of the whole Rover team, as well.

Getting to Mars required engineering genius, scientific strategy, and the drive to persevere in the face of failure. Although the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has become synonymous with the United States’ planetary exploration during the past half century, its most recent focus has been on Mars. Beginning in the 1990s and continuing through the Mars Phoenix mission of 2007, JPL led the way in engineering an impressive, rapidly evolving succession of Mars orbiters and landers, including roving robotic vehicles whose successful deployment onto the Martian surface posed some of the most complicated technical problems in space flight history. In Exploration and Engineering, Erik M. Conway reveals how JPL engineers’ creative technological feats led to major breakthroughs in Mars exploration. He takes readers into the heart of the lab’s problem-solving approach and management structure, where talented scientists grappled with technical challenges while also coping, not always successfully, with funding shortfalls, unrealistic schedules, and managerial turmoil. Conway, JPL’s historian, offers an insider’s perspective into the changing goals of Mars exploration, the ways in which sophisticated computer simulations drove the design process, and the remarkable evolution of landing technologies over a thirty-year period.

For readers from both academia and industry wishing to pursue their studies and /or careers in planetary robotics, this book represents a one-stop tour of the history, evolution, key systems, and technologies of this emerging field. The book provides a comprehensive introduction to the key techniques and technologies that help to achieve autonomous space systems for cost-effective, high performing planetary robotic missions. Main topics covered include robotic vision, surface navigation, manipulation, mission operations and autonomy, being explained in both theoretical principles and practical use cases. The book recognizes the importance of system design hence discusses practices and tools that help take mission concepts to baseline design solutions, making it a practical piece of scientific reference suited to a variety of practitioners in planetary robotics.

More than 50 years after the Mariner 4 flyby on 15 July 1965, Mars still represents the next frontier of space explorations. Of particular focus nowadays is crewed missions to the red planet. Over three sections, this book explores missions to Mars, in situ operations, and human-rated missions. Chapters address elements of design and possible psychological effects related to human-rated missions. The information contained herein will allow for the development of safe and efficient exploration missions to Mars.