Back on Earth, four Sun Netra t1 carrier grade servers are ready to share the fruits of the exploration over the Internet with space buffs everywhere. Through computerized simulation of the Polar Lander's movements, the public will be able to control a model of the Lander by issuing commands via the same Web Interface for TeleScience (WITS) application that NASA scientists will be using to control the robotic arm of the Lander on Mars.

Key to the success of the Mars Polar Lander mission is the development, testing and communication of commands between the Lander and NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of California at Los Angeles and University of Arizona that instruct the Polar Lander where to dig for "volatiles." The commands will be generated using WITS, a Java 2D and Java 3D technology-based application. WITS enables NASA scientists to program and test commands through simulation on an offline Sun Ultra 80 workstation. When NASA scientists are satisfied with the command sequence, the commands are then sent into the uplink process to be transmitted to the Lander.

"The reliability of our command generation and analysis systems is enhanced through the use of Java technology running on Sun workstations," said Paul Backes of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Southern California. "Sun quickly delivered the workstations we needed when we told them how we wanted to use them for robotic arm command sequence generation and simulation."

"As a high technology systems company, Sun understands the critical importance of scientific understanding across all disciplines," said Greg Papadopoulos, chief technology officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "We're delighted that Sun can play an important role in the exploration of Mars and foster what may be fundamental discoveries that challenge what we think and know about space."

The 1,270-pound Polar Lander stands 3.5 feet tall and 12 feet wide. It has a 6.5-foot-long digging arm that will scoop up soil samples and deliver them to an onboard oven. Gases from the heated samples will be analyzed for any evidence of water. Meanwhile, the Lander's cameras and other instruments will capture data on atmospheric conditions and weather patterns, and a microphone will pick up sounds from Mars, such as wind, and will eventually be buried to monitor sounds of the planet's core shifting. All of the commands for deploying the robotic arm and the robotic arm's camera on the surface of Mars will be developed and tested using Sun Ultra 80 workstations running the Java programming language.

Each of the Ultra 80 workstations are equipped with two 450MHz UltraSPARC-II processors, one gigabyte of memory, an 18 gigabyte hard disk drive, a Sun Elite3D m6 graphics accelerator and a 21" high-resolution monitor.

Equally important to the overall success of the mission is continued public enthusiasm for NASA's space exploration programs -- enthusiasm that has been spurred by the availability of information over the Internet. To meet the expected demand for information about the Polar Lander's activities, NASA is hosting the mission's Web site on four Sun Netra t1 servers.

The servers will deliver timely information about the status of the mission to scientists worldwide via the Internet. The WITS application is being provided to the public to download and run on their own computers to plan and simulate their own mission sequences. A benefit of writing the WITS application in the Java programming language is that the same code that runs on Sun Ultra workstations also runs on other computers. This has enabled NASA to provide a public version of WITS at little extra cost.

Mars Polar Lander SpaceDaily's own corporate Mars mirror

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Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India
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