Comparison of embedded computer systems on board the Mars rovers
The embedded computer systems on board the Mars rovers that have been launched by NASA have high levels of radiation and extreme temperature fluctuations survive. For this reason, the computer resources as compared to conventional computer systems are limited to the earth.
Overview
The direct teleoperation of a Mars rover is not practical because the round trip of the radio signals between Earth and Mars 8 requires up to 42 minutes and the Deep Space Network a few times over the course of a Martian - day (sol) is available. Therefore, a rover team plans Command all operational commands as a batch and sends them at once to the rover. Thus, the rover receives all commands to be executed on etwaig stock.
In addition, using a Rover autonomous software to make decisions on the basis of observation of the sensors. For each pair of stereoscopic images could Sojourner Rover ( Pathfinder ) generate 20 3D points, while the MER already could generate 15,000 to 40,000 3D points. A long-term trend in the Mars Rover computing is thus a larger instrument autonomy. Autonomy means that the instrument has its own CPU and its own operating system (RTOS or executive) has. In the end, the instrument with the ever- needed intervention of the CPU which controls the rover, they operate independently. The Mars Science Laboratory has cameras with greater autonomy than some of the other instruments.