Being on Mars Without Being There

Forty years after the great pioneering achievement of the Moon Landings, instead of going onto Mars as many had hoped, we find ourselves back in low Earth orbit with a controversial Space Station.

The Augustine Commission, appointed by President Obama to review NASA's plans for human space flight, has concluded that manned missions to the Moon and to Mars are not affordable. However, this does not mean that we have to give up on our long-standing aspiration to explore and develop space. There is a much more effective and much less expensive means for the human exploration and development of space-telepresence.

Telepresence is an emerging technology that can enable humans to effectively experience and function in a distant space environment such as Mars without actually going there.

Early stage telepresence is currently being used for diverse terrestrial and space applications. For example:

• Soldiers in Afghanistan are using unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to remotely find and disable IEDs.
• Airmen in Colorado are using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to find and attack terrorists on the other side of the world.
• An FDA-approved operating room suite enables surgeons to perform minimallyinvasive surgery remotely.
• NASA has sent two Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) to Mars, and scientists at JPL in California are using them to dig into the Martian surface to look for signs of water.

Telepresence, as effective for exploration of Mars as actually going there, would differ from the early stage telepresence used by the Rovers currently on Mars. Though differing, it would only be by degree of technical sophistication, such as:

• By enhanced dexterous capability of the Rover's manipulators that would more nearly match the dexterous capability of an astronaut's gloved hands and fingers;
• By a larger, more physically powerful Rover that could move around and do the heavy work that a space-suited astronaut might do;
• By a source of more power for this more capable Rover;
• By more video imagery relayed back from the Rover to its human controller; and
• By more local intelligence, and more local visual and tactile perception by the Rover to enable it to independently, intelligently and expeditiously carry out the high level commands sent, with a 30-minute transmission delay, by its human controller on Earth. For example: "Go over there, pick up that rock, take it to that analysis station, and then report back to me." These italicized locations would be identified by the human controller on his/ her video image of the Martian scene, and this annotated image, together with the associated action commands would be relayed to the Rover.

Exploration of Mars by telepresence is the human exploration and development of space that NASA has been aspiring to do all along. The exploration is not performed by an inanimate Rover on Mars, but by its human controller on Earth.

Multiple Rovers that could be deployed would enable multiple humans on Earth to simultaneously function in and experience Mars. These Rovers, under direction of their human controllers on Earth, would be able to repair and maintain each other. A permanent human presence could thereby be established on Mars. Telepresence missions could be undertaken to other planets, moons and asteroids for which manned missions might never be possible.

Development and deployment of a telepresence mission to Mars would be technically challenging, but much less challenging and much less expensive than a manned mission. Restructuring our space program from manned missions to telepresence would develop a vibrant high-tech industry attractive to young engineers and scientists that would serve not only telepresence for space, but also its many terrestrial applications.

The individual component technologies of telepresence autonomy, dexterous manipulators, video relay, etc, would also find wide application in the very high tech world ahead in the 21st century. The space industry would flourish, transporting the Rovers to space that enable humans on Earth to experience and function in space, without being there.

RPU Technology Inc.
Needham, Ma
rpuinc.com