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Sojourner Shows Benefits, Problems of Remote Exploration
The robotic rover Sojourner made the first wheeled exploration of another planet this month, and showed the capabilities -- and limitations -- of remotely-operated vehicles in space exploration.
After a one-day delay due to communication problems between the rover and lander, the rover rolled down a ramp onto the surface and into history, not to mention the hearts and minds of millions who began to almost treat the rover as a person as it slowly explored the Martian terrain.
![[image of rover on Yogi]](../970715/images2/sojyogi.jpg)
While its initial exploration of the soil around the lander and the nearby small rock "Barnacle Bill" were successful, later efforts showed that there was still room for improvement for robotic rovers.
A human error July 9 in positioning the rover meant that Sojourner tried to drive up the side of the rock "Yogi", which is much larger than the rover itself. The rover's software caught the problem and stopped the rover before any damage occurred.
Mission manager Richard Cook compared the mishap to "running over the curb" while trying to park a car. He joked that none of the rover drivers on the ground had yet "lost their license."
The error meant a lost day of data from the rover, which was compounded when a communications glitch prevented the rover from receiving the command to back away from the rock, stranding it there another day.
By Saturday the rover was safely away from the rock, and mission planners spent the weekend planning their next approach to Yogi and other nearby rocks. By late Monday, July 14, Sojourner's analysis of Yogi was complete.
Despite the miscues by the rover and its human controllers, its presence on the Martian surface captured the imagination of millions of people more than perhaps any other aspect of the mission.
"I am most intrigued by the way we have welcomed this high-tech traveler into our species," said Ellen Goodman, a columnist for the Boston Globe. "No sooner had it landed than Sojourner was magically anthropomorphized."