New Programs with the Hunveyor Experimental Planetary Lander in the Universities and High Schools in Hungary

Abstract

Our planetary lander type robot, Hunveyor (Hungarian UNiversity SURVEYOR) [1-2] was successfully extended in university and high school education in Hungary. We report three types of developments: a) developing a stereo camera system and 3D view on a planned rover accompanying Hunveyor (example was Pathfinder), b) opening an internet possibility [3] to use Hunveyor as if it were standing on a planet, studying the main rock types of the inner Solar System, and c) beginning of lander construction by some new high school teams. INTRODUCTION On the Eotvos University, Budapest, (Dept. G. Technology) there are two levels of laboratory facilities, and courses to prepare students in robotics. The first level educates how a physical experiment can be planned, constructed, (signals transformed by A/D converter, etc.) and how these units can be built into a measuring system. On the second level there is the Hunveyor experimental lander which realizes how to build together the measuring subsystems (and also gives the possibility of harmonizing experiments, fit them together, suborder and operate them by the on board computer and telemetrics, organizes signals to be transported to the operation center). NEW DEVELOPMENTS ON HUNVEYOR Hunveyor minimal probe was constructed last year [1, 2]. Since that time the connection was established by IR signals. One group developed a 3D camera to Hunveyor. The other group constructs a rover and its connection to webpage. This page was opened for students to make possible movement operations and 3D observations, as if they were on a planetary surface. ROVER MOVES, MAKES STEREO PICTURES ABOUT ROCKS Encouraged by the success of Pathfinder a group of colleagues and students made plans and builds now a rover, which moves to and fro between rock types and makes stereo pairs of photos to measure distances. This experiment is described in another paper, here mentioned because it forms part of the operations with Hunveyor on internet [3]. Another group developed 3D camera using red and green filters, and mirror duplicated color pictures. The wireless communication was our next step in communivation developments of Hunveyor. First we built an IR communication. The distance between Hunveyor lander and the main server was maximum 10-15 meter. The planned rover moves in the vicinity of Hunveyor, but not a longer distance. (Next generation will be the radio communication.) BEGINNING OF PLANETARY PETROLOGY BY LANDER ON SURFACE: THE MAIN ROCK TYPES TOUCHED WITH THE ROBOT ARM BY STUDENTS We arranged Hunveyor as if it were landed on a planetary surface and arranged around it the most important rock types from the Solar System rocky bodies. The list of rocky actors around is as follows: 1. basalt with mantle xenolith (basalt is the most common rock type in the Solar System, the specimen is from Szentbekkalla, Balaton highlands, W-Hungary) [4] 2. lherzolite (over mantle xenoliths Martian meteorites represent this rock type from the Solar System, the specimen is from Szentbekkalla, W-Hungary) [4] 3. komatiite (it represents early volcanism on Earth, high Mg content, probably present in volcanism of Mars and Io, and found similar rock by Venera 14 on Venus, too; the specimen is from Australia) [5-7] 4. andesite (a rock type mostly in island arc in plate tectonics, but present on Mars recognized by Pathfinder; the specimen is from the Inner-Carpathian Arc, Borzsony Mts. N-Hungary) [8-9] 5. zeolite (a rock type produced by surface weathering on Mars and also by hydrothermal volcanism and metamorphism on Earth; the specimen is from Ratka, Tokaj Mts. EHungary) [10-11] 6. rhyolite by impact melting from granite (a larger piece from Ramso island, Mien crater, Skone Province, Sweden, which exhibits clasts and fragments from the precursor rocks) [12] 7. gabbro (both on the Moon and Earth it is an important mafic rock, both a microgabbro and a larger grain sized gabbro is from Tardos Mine, Szarvasko, Bukk Mts. NHungary), [13] 8. wehr