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Grover the Rover visits Greenland

May 27, 2013

Grover is a 6’ tall 800lb. robot developed by NASA. He’s getting a test run on the Greenland ice sheet. No cookies needed for fuel though, just solar energy.

GROVER, which stands for both »Greenland Rover« and »Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research«, is an autonomous, solar-operated robot that carries a ground-penetrating radar to examine the layers of Greenland’s ice sheet. Its findings will help scientists understand how the massive ice sheet gains and loses ice.

The GROVER team, led by glaciologist Lora Koenig from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., arrived in Summit Camp, the highest spot in Greenland, on May 6, 2013.
After loading and testing the rover’s radar, the team began the robot’s tests on the ice on May 8, defying winds of up to 23 mph and temperatures as low as minus 22 F.

The robot is powered entirely by solar energy, so it can operate in pristine polar environments without adding to air pollution. The panels are mounted in an inverted V, allowing them to collect energy from the sun and sunlight reflected off the ice sheet. GROVER is ~0.5 mile away from start of an ICESat track & will stay outdoors on his first night out.

Commentary

You can follow Grover on the Internet - NASA’s website and by twitter too.

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Source: NASA