CARNEGIE MELLON ROBOT HEADS TO ANTARCTICA TO SEARCH AUTONOMOUSLY FOR METEORITES.A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute The Robotics Institute (RI) is a division of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is considered to be one of the leading centers of robotics research in the world. is preparing to ship a robot to Antarctica to autonomously search for meteorites Meteorites See also astronomy. aerolithology the science of aerolites, whether meteoric stones or meteorites. Also called aerolitics. astrolithology the study of meteorites. Also called meteoritics. . The robot, named Nomad, will use advanced autonomy technology and a suite of science sensors to distinguish meteorites from terrestrial rocks and classify them on site. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the Carnegie researchers, Nomad's search for Antarctic meteorites marks the first time a robot will be used to discover extraterrestrial material that has fallen to Earth. It will also serve as a prototype for future science missions to Mars and the Moon. The Nomad research program and the planned expedition are funded by grants from the Cross Enterprise Technology Development Program of NASA's Office of Space Science and is the result of a collaborative effort between the Carnegie Mellon team and the National Science Foundation's (NSF NSF - National Science Foundation ) Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program. Funded by the NSF's Office of Polar Programs, ANSMET scientists have collected more than 10,000 Antarctic meteorites in annual expeditions since 1978. The robot and the Carnegie Mellon/ANSMET team will travel to Elephant Moraine moraine (mərān`), a formation composed of unsorted and unbedded rock and soil debris called till, which was deposited by a glacier. The till that falls on the sides of a valley glacier from the bounding cliffs makes up lateral moraines, , a remote site in eastern Antarctica, 160 miles northeast of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. McMurdo Station, in January. Nomad will conduct a series of experiments and searches designed to autonomously navigate in the region while searching for meteorites. The robot will use high resolution imagery, spectroscopy and metal detection to gather science data. A newly developed manipulator arm will enable precise placement of the science instruments on rocks. The ANSMET members of the field team will serve as guides to the region and collect any meteorites that Nomad successfully locates. The expedition is expected to last three weeks, depending on the weather. n |
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