Projects
Red Rover Goes to Mars
The Red Rover Goes to Mars project was a path-breaking partnership between an advocacy organization, The Planetary Society; a government agency, NASA; and a privately held company, the LEGO Company. The project ran from 2000 to 2004 and provided hands-on opportunities for students around the world to participate directly in real missions to Mars.
In 2001, an international team of Student Scientists traveled to Malin Space Science Systems to operate the camera aboard the Mars Global Surveyor mission, currently in orbit around Mars. A year later, another international team of Student Navigators worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory learning to operate the FIDO rover, a prototype rover designed to support upcoming NASA Mars missions. And, in early 2004, the Student Astronauts worked with the science team inside mission operations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory while the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity explored the Red Planet. The Student Astronauts' Journals were read by people around the world.
Red Rover Goes to Mars also sent millions of people's names to the surface of Mars aboard Spirit and Opportunity on a pair of silica glass DVDs. The DVDs were provided at no cost to NASA. The DVDs provided a vehicle for several public engagement activities, including "Crack the Secret Code from Spirit," "Crack the Secret Code from Opportunity," and the "Astrobot Diaries." Both Spirit and Opportunity returned multiple color images of the DVDs from Mars.
Red Rover Goes to Mars developed out of another cooperative project between The Planetary Society and LEGO called Red Rover, Red Rover, in which classrooms can build robotic LEGO rovers and operate them remotely, via the Internet, to learn about the challenges of Mars exploration. Later, the Mars Station project broadened the reach of the remote driving experience to anyone with access to the Internet.
|
[ what is this? ]