Remote Rovin’: NASA Mars Rover Drivers Are Working From Home. Here’s How They Do It.

April 21, 2020 27:52 13.38 MB Downloads: 0

For those of us now working from home, we know there are a few challenges. Your mic doesn’t work on a Zoom meeting, your cat walks across your keyboard, your VPN is busted. Well, imagine your job entails driving a car-sized rover some 100 million miles away on the surface of Mars — all from home.

That’s exactly what the Curiosity Rover team is doing now with great success. NASA’s Alicia Allbaugh leads the Mars rover driving team and joins us to talk about the challenges of remote working and the successes her team has accomplished.

Then, each year scientists get together and plan for the next ten years of discovery. The Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey is underway — so what’s on the horizon? On this week’s installment of “I’d Like to Know,” our expert scientists weigh in on what’s to come in the efforts of planetary discovery.