Responsible for creating the mission site and executing commands to the rover without knowing the rover's destination. Our ability to execute rover commands was critical.

Mary

Angelica

Yohei

Blake

Responsibility: to create the mission site and execute commands to the rover.

Specialty: executing rover commands.

Limitations: This team will not know the rover's destination and must command it exactly as directed by the Navigation team.

Procedure: Learn the responsibilities of the other teams. Determine how video images will be transferred to the classroom from the mission site. We linked a camcorder to a television in the multipurpose room.

(NASA)

We placed "reference markers" every 2 feet on the surface so we could tell how much the camera turned during panning. We made a scale map of the site showing the location of each rock. We marked the location of the camera on the map. We placed the camera in a location that was consistent throughout the mission.

The Lander Team worked with the Navigation team to practice executing their command sequences and transmitting camera images. Note: The Lander Team was not be told the objective of the mission (which rock to visit). We turned off the camera while the rover was moving. Execute rover commands exactly as given you. We turned the camera on when rover had reached its destination. The video could then be seen at Concord Mission Control.

After one set of commands the Lander Team awaited further instructions. We repeated execution of commands as requested by Concord Mission Control.

Hints: We kept it simple and tried to execute "uplinked" commands exactly as written. We practiced with the rover until we achieved a high level of precision in command execution. We had great difficulties with the rover slipping on sand. We avoided telling the location of the Lander site and details of rover movement to anyone.

The above description is a slightly modified version of the Virtual Sojourner Student Activity #1: Driving Blind by Richard Edgerton. On the Live from Earth and Mars Site from K-12 educators, NASA's Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications (IITA) Program and the University of Washington.