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Rover Mission Using JAVA Technology
Pawan Janorkar
10 April 2021
Man who is a good explorer by nature is trying to invade his next planet,
the Mars, with the help of JAVA enabled rovers. Both JAVA and rovers
are wonders created by man.
Java technology today is good for general purpose computing and GUIs,
but it was not ready for use with control systems like the software on the
Rover. The Golden Gate project seeks to use RTSJ (Real Time
Specification for JAVA) to develop a system of control software that can
be used on a Rover.
The places where NASA scientists have used Java for this mission is all
on the groundside right now. They have created this collaborative
command and control system called Maestro, which does this
combination of data visualization, collaboration, command and control.
Golden Gate project is being worked on which will create code that
would replace the proprietary APIs and real-time operating system code
(Wind River) in future missions. Java 3D and Java Advanced Imaging
technology are also key to the software JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
is using to render and interpret real time images captured by the Rover.
JAVA, due to its unique features like, platform independency, rich set of
API libraries such as 3-D modeling APIs, Advanced Imaging APIs and its
Mission Data System to control physical systems fuelled the Mars
exploring rover mission.
NASA's twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are exploring opposite
sides of the Red Planet to search for evidence of past or present water
and to map its geological and climate history. On Jan. 3, 2004, the Spirit
rover landed in Gusev Crater on Mars, kicking off a mission planned to
last 90-days. Two years later, Spirit and fellow robotic explorer
Opportunity, which landed Jan. 24, 2004, are still going strong. Each
Martian morning, the rovers receive a full day of instructions. They
operate autonomously all day, and transmit the resulting images and
data back to earth at the end of the day. The operations staff lives on
"Mars time", each day is approximately 24 hours, 40 minutes. Planning
is done during the Martian night, and there are strict deadlines for the
uplink of new rover instructions.
The places where NASA scientists have used Java for this mission is all
on the groundside right now. They have created this collaborative
command and control system called Maestro, which does this
combination of data visualization, collaboration, command and control. In
the current mission, the software used on the ground to create
commands to send to the Rover, and the control software that actually
sits on the Rover, are two very different systems with nothing in common
whatsoever. What's being used up on the Rover is a well-known real-
time operating system from Wind River Systems. Golden Gate is being
worked upon which will create code that would replace the proprietary
APIs and real-time operating system code (Wind River) in future
missions. Sun Labs, Carnegie Mellon-West, a campus of Carnegie
Mellon located near Sun Labs in Silicon Valley, and the Jet Propulsion
Labs (JPL) are working together on this project. Work is being done on
implementation of a software architecture developed at JPL called
CONCLUSION
We all know how JAVA emerged from the hands of Gosling’s team who
were trying to program an application which could work efficiently on
electronic devices. It was a success and soon java spread over the world
due to its unique feature, platform independency to be used in web
applications. Now JAVA and its rich set of API are even helping us drive
to our next planet MARS.
Now we have two rovers on mars each exploring the red planet. These
are working efficiently since January 2004 only with the help of the best
ground control system powered by JAVA.
Now that Java has helped us get to Mars, who knows what "Java
Everywhere" will mean in the future?
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