Labels: text | machine | screenshot | camera OCR: The Sojourner or "micro-rover" ROBOTS MARTIAN ROVERS The Sojourner rover was launched aboard the Mars ROBOTS IN FILM Pathfinder on December 5, 1996, and is scheduled to land on the Red Planet in early July 1997. Unlike the Viking landers, the Sojourner will be the first mobile vehicle to explore the Martian surface. After landing, the pyramid- shaped Pathfinder will be stabilized, then the sides will open like the petals of a flower to free the six-wheeled Sojourner. Equipped with solar panels, the 60-centimeter long vehicle has a traveling speed of 60 centimeters per minute (36 meters per hour). It will collect samples for several weeks. The Sojourner is based on the Rocky 4 prototype developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). If the Pathfinder mission goes well, NASA plans to launch four more rovers, one every two years beginning in December 1998. These will be more powerful, "long- distance" vehicles, like JPL's Rocky 7 prototype. In addition, other vehicles have already been tested by NASA, such as Robby and the mobile micro-robot called Tooth. Robby is a heavy rover, weighing several hundred kilos, with a flight configuration of 1200 kilos-its microprocessors require several hundred watts of power so the energy source is rather weighty. MARS BETAT
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