Category: Other Worlds and Tech

Getting set for a long drive

Posted on by Inara Pey

CuriosityAfter six months in “Yellowknife Bay”, Curiosity is getting ready to move on. Investigations in the area are due to come to an end in the near future, and with the new autonomous driving software now installed in the rover, it is anticipated that the long drive to “Mount Sharp” will begin very soon. The start of this phase of the mission will be marked by the Rover retracing its steps (tracks?) through “Glenelg”, the region so-named partially because it is a palindrome, reflecting the fact the rover would be driving through it twice.

How long the rover will take to get to “Mount Sharp” is entirely open to question, however. While Curiosity is now far more capable of autonomous navigation, it won’t be a case of “pick and route which looks good and go”. If nothing else, there is no way of knowing what the rover might discover while en route.

“We don’t know when we’ll get to Mount Sharp,” Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager Jim Erickson said at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “This truly is a mission of exploration, so just because our end goal is Mount Sharp doesn’t mean we’re not going to investigate interesting features along the way.”

The slopes of "Mount Sharp"
The slopes of “Mount Sharp” showing a “region of interest”  captured by Curiosity’s Mastcam in August 2012 while the rover was still at the “Bradbury Landing” site. Scientists are keen to explore the mesa-like outcrops on the side of the mound, although how long it will take the rover to get to them in subject to finding a suitable route and also upon what other discoveries lay along the rover’s path. The black dot in the inset image (actually a large rock) demonstrates how the rover might look from “Bradbury Landing” were it exploring “Mount Sharp” at the time the images was captured

In May, Curiosity completed a second drilling operation to obtain samples from inside an area of bedrock called “Cumberland” within “Yellowknife Bay”, delivering them to the Chemistry and Minerology (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars SAM) suites of instruments aboard the rover for detailed analysis. This work is still ongoing, and it is hoped that the result will further confirm findings obtained as a result of the first drilling operation, carried out a few metres away on a rock formation dubbed “John Klein”, and which suggested that the area once had environmental conditions favourable for microbial life.

No further drilling operations are now planned for the area, although NASA has yet to give word on the results from the initial analysis of the “Cumberland” cuttings.  Additionally, once the order is given to start the drive towards “Mount Sharp”, the rover will retain cuttings from the “Cumberland” drilling ins its sample scoop which can be delivered to CheMin and SAM for additional analysis, if required.

Both drilling operations have been important steps for the MSL mission. Not only have they been a successful test / use of the last remain major science capability on the rover (the ability to drill into rocks and obtain samples), they’ve also been an important learning situation for mission engineers. Steps which each took a day each to complete when drilling at “John Klein” could be strung together into a single sequence of commands at “Cumberland”, allowing the rover to complete a number of drilling-related tasks autonomously and in a single day.

“We used the experience and lessons from our first drilling campaign, as well as new cached sample capabilities, to do the second drill campaign far more efficiently,” said sampling activity lead Joe Melko of JPL. “In addition, we increased use of the rover’s autonomous self-protection. This allowed more activities to be strung together before the ground team had to check in on the rover.”

Site of the second drilling operation at “Cumberland”. The sample hole, 1.6 cm across (0.6 in) was cut on May 19th, 2013 (Sol 279). The row of small holes in the grey tailings surrounding the drill-hole mark where the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) laser was used to check the composition of the tailings

It’s hoped that these capabilities will allow the mission team to plan future routines for the rover more efficiently and in the knowledge that Curiosity has the ability to carry out multiple tasks without the need to “‘phone home” at each stage of an operation, something which introduces considerable delays in activities as a result of the two-way communications lag.

Prior to leaving “Yellowknife Bay”, two further “targets of opportunity” will be subject to brief observations by Curiosity. The first of these is a layered outcrop dubbed “Shaler”, which was briefly looked at as the rover initially entered the “Glenelg” / “Yellowknife Bay” region, and a pitted outcrop called “Point Lake”

The science team has chosen three targets for brief observations before Curiosity leaves the Glenelg area: the boundary between bedrock areas of mudstone and sandstone, a layered outcrop called “Shaler”, a possible river deposit, and a pitted outcrop called “Point Lake”, a depressional area thought to be either volcanic or sedimentary in nature, and which the rover observed when entering “Yellowknife Bay” from “Glenelg”.

Continue reading “Getting set for a long drive” →

Cutting into “Cumberland”

Posted on by Inara Pey

CuriosityOn Sol 279 of its mission (May 19th 2013), Curiosity completely its second major drilling operation intended to retrieve cuttings from inside a rocky surface in the “Yellowknife Bay” area of Gale Crater on Mars.

The operation took place on a rocky outcrop dubbed “Cumberland” a short distance from the site of the initial drilling operation, which took place on a rocky area dubbed “John Klein” in February 2013. Samples gathered from the drilling will be processed by CHIMRA – the Collection and Handling for In-situ Martian Rock Analysis – prior to being delivered to the Chemistry and Minerology (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suites inside the body of the rover.

A “raw” (unprocessed) image returned by Curiosity’s Left B black-and-white Navcam as drilling operations are underway at “Cumberland” rock on Sol 279 (May 19th, 2013).

The primary aim of this work is to check findings gathered in the analysis of samples obtained from “John Klein”. These indicate that Yellowknife Bay long ago had environmental conditions favourable for microbial life, with conditions which included the key elemental ingredients for life, an energy gradient that could be exploited by microbes, and water that was not harshly acidic or briny.

“Cumberland” itself is very similar to “John Klein”, but has more of the erosion-resistant granules that cause the surface bumps. The bumps are concretions, or clumps of minerals, which formed when water-soaked the rock long ago. Analysis of a sample containing more material from these concretions could provide information about the variability within the rock layer that includes both “John Klein” and “Cumberland”.

Imaged by the Mars Hand Lens Imager, the hole cut into “Cumberland,” during the 279th Martian day, or Sol, of the rover’s work on Mars (May 19, 2013) cuttings collected by the drill from this hole will be delivered to the rover’s on-board CheMin and SAM instruments for analysis. The hole is some 1.6 cm across and 6.6 cm deep

The initial hole cut into “Cumberland”, which lies some 2.75 metres (9 feet) from “John Klein”, was made to a depth of 6.6 cm (2.6 inches), which was sufficient to force cuttings up into the collection bowl in the drill head itself. In the coming days the cuttings will be passed into CHIMRA and then to the rover’s sample-gathering scoop where they’ll be visually checked by the rover’s camera systems prior to being passed through the sieving mechanisms within CHIMRA ready for delivery to CheMin and SAM.

Once delivered to both instruments, analysis of the samples is liable to take a place over a few days prior to results being returned to Earth.

Related Links

First Annual OpenSim Community Conference announced

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Monday May 20th, the Overte Foundation and Avacon announced the First Annual OpenSim Community Conference, which will take place on the 7th and 8th September 2013.

OSCC-banner

The official programme will be held in-world on purpose-built grid, designed specifically for the conference. In addition, the conference grid will be HyperGrid enabled,  allowing attendees to move between it and other grids which may be hosting social events linked to the conference.

The conference is intended to be a celebration of the OpenSimulator platform and the large and varied community using it. As such, it will feature two days of keynote speakers, presentations and panels on different topics, and an exposition area to showcase community activities and projects and event sponsors. Therefore, anyone who is interested in the OpenSimulator software and the future of the metaverse is invited to attend, as well as OpenSimulator developers, grid administrators, and members of the community who participate on OpenSimulator grids.

Registration and Speakers

Registrations for the conference will open on June 17th 2013 on a first-come-first-served basis. The organisers hope to accommodate 200 users in total, and once that number has been reached, community members will still be able to register for the live UStream version of the conference, which will be provided on-line free-of-charge.

The exposition area of the conference grid will not be restricted to ticket-only access, and so will be only to anyone wishing to visit, subject to constraints on the number of avatars that the exhibition regions can hold at any given time.

The First OpenSimulator Community Conference programme will be held in-world on a purpose built grid (image of illustrative purposes only, and not representative of the conference grid)
The First OpenSimulator Community Conference programme will be held in-world on a purpose built grid (image for illustrative purposes only, and not representative of the conference grid)

The conference will comprise five tracks in order to cluster break-out sessions into common areas of interest. Anyone wishing to attend the conference as a speaker is invited to submit a proposal under one of the following headings – note that relevant guidelines are provided for each track, and should be read in full prior to submitting a proposal:

All speaker proposals must be submitted no later than July 1st, 2013.

Sponsors and Volunteers

While the conference is being held in virtual space, it does incur some expenses (such as the professionally managed set-up and operation of the conference grid and the streaming and other web services). As such, the conference is seeking sponsorship from businesses, entrepreneurs,  and community members alike to help support the conference through a range of sponsorship opportunities, which are tax-deductible for US residents minus the value of any tangible benefits.

The conference also needs volunteers to assist with a wide variety of roles including greeting attendees, moderating breakout sessions, assisting with building and scripting tasks, providing technical support, and so on. If you are experienced with the OpenSimulator platform and have an interest in helping, please complete the Volunteer Application form.

About the Organisers

The Overte Foundation is a non-profit organization that manages contribution agreements for the OpenSimulator project.  In the future, it will also act to promote and support both OpenSimulator and the wider open-source 3D virtual environment ecosystem.

AvaCon, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth, enhancement, and development of the metaverse, virtual worlds, augmented reality, and 3D immersive and virtual spaces. We hold conventions and meetings to promote educational and scientific inquiry into these spaces, and to support organized fan activities, including performances, lectures, art, music, machinima, and much more. Our primary goal is to connect and support the diverse communities and practitioners involved in co-creating and using virtual worlds, and to educate the public and our constituents about the emerging ecosystem of technologies broadly known as the metaverse.

Related Links

CastAR: looking at the virtual through a different pair of glasses

Posted on by Inara Pey

There has been a lot of excitement about Oculus Rift (OR) over the last few months and how it could revolutionise immersive gameplay, including the potential it offers to SL (and vice-versa).

Now The Verge reports on another innovative development using a headset system called  CastAR, and augmented reality system aimed at the gaming market and formally announced at the 2013 Maker Faire in New York. Whether it might find a suitable use within Second Life remains to be seen. However, whether it does or doesn’t, it is a fascinating concept which could potentially bring the world of high-end, ultra-expensive augmented reality capabilities directly into the home (and workplace?) for a variety of uses.

Currently in the earliest stages of development, CastAR essentially projects virtual environments into the real world, where you can directly interact with them in a variety of ways. It is the brainchild of former Valve employees  Jeri Ellsworth, a hardware engineer, and programmer Rick Johnson. “Former” because they were let go by the company in February 2013, along with 23 other engineers, after spending a year on the project. However, not only did Gabe Newell, co-founder and Managing Director of Valve let Ellsworth and Johnson go – he gave them his blessings to take the idea and the associated IP with them (a remarkable move in itself).  Since then, they’ve founded their own company, Technical Illusions, and have been hard at work developing a system which, according to The Verge, they’ve already poured a better part of a year of their lives.

Conceptual art for the production CastAR glasses (image courtesy of Technical Illusions / The Verge)
Conceptual art for the production CastAR glasses (image courtesy of Technical Illusions / The Verge)

The system comprises a special pair of glasses which house a set of projectors which beam the image from your computer – such as a game – onto a retroreflective projector screen. A camera also built-in to the glasses sees infrared LEDs positioned around the edges of that projector screen, allowing the glasses to track the exact position of your head so that the software can adjust the 3D perspective in real-time. The result is the projection of images and objects from the computer as 3D objects which you can move around and examine.

This is in marked contrast to the likes of Oculus Rift, where images are displayed on screens within the headset. The result is that even on the small-scale prototype the team have so far developed, it is possible to move around the projected image and interact with it: Sean Hollister from The Verge demonstrated playing a Jenga-like game which allowed him to dismantle virtual towers of block using a hand-held wand. He was also able to demonstrate playing a two-player shoot-’em-up, with both players using the same retroreflective surface, but each seeing views unique to their relative position and head movement.

The initial CastAR prototype glasses shown at the 2013 Maker Faire
The initial CastAR prototype glasses shown at the 2013 Maker Faire (image courtesy of The Verge)

Right now, CastAR is in a very rudimentary stage of development, as indicated in the coverage found in The Verge, as are the potential uses for the system.  Ellsworth and Johnson have presented an early prototype of the system at the 2013 Maker Faire in New York,  where they have also been soliciting feedback on possible uses for CastAR.

One suggested idea would be to make the retroreflective surface room-sized, allowing for complete augmentation / immersion in  3D environment where one and not only look around, but also interact with the objects they find. Quite how this would be achieved is open to debate; redecorating an entire room as a holodeck environment isn’t something that is likely to be welcomed in the average home – although the potential for low-cost specialist environments might be another matter.

However, entire holorooms aren’t necessarily what Technical Illusions are considering. As The Verge states, the team are still very much open to idea, and while Rick Johnson “envisions little children filling their Tonka trucks with virtual sand; family board games; and incredible sessions of Dungeons & Dragons“, Jeri Ellsworth is quoted as saying, “I suspect we’re going to be very surprised about what people find fun in this space,”

One of the aims the team has is to keep overall retail cost of the unit low – around $200 once it is available on the market, largely thanks to their ability to use readily available components, and also in being able to design their own chips and code. To fund the project, the team plan to launch a kickstarter fundraiser in the near future, and will be making a Software Development Kit available to game-makers. However, the aim is very much to try to make the system a commercial product in its own right. This may start small, with simple games played on a small projection surface and a couple of headsets with control wands – but how far the system goes beyond that could be anyone’s guess.

Related Links

Kitely Market opens for merchants

Posted on by Inara Pey

Kitely-logoOn Saturday May 11th 2013, Kitely announced they are opening their new Market to merchants so that the latter can start to build their stores.

The move comes five months after Kitely first announced they would be developing the Market (see my report from January 2013), and marks a further significant step forward in Kitely’s plans to establish a web-based marketplace which will initially allow merchants to sell products to other Kitely users, but which it is hoped will eventual be available to users across multiple grids.

The Market will combine features familiar to those used to using the SL Marketplace or markets such as the (now defunct) Apez and Metaverse Exchange: items can be browsed on-line, then purchased (using Kitely Credits (KCs) or US dollars), prior to being delivered directly to the purchaser’s in-world inventory in a similar manner to SL’s Direct Delivery mechanism. Additionally, the Market will function more like e-commerce sites such as Amazon, where items can be searched for using attributes as well as a category hierarchy, making the search process and drill-down easier and more flexible for both merchants and consumers.

The new Marketplace button on the Kitely toolbar
The new Marketplace button on the Kitely toolbar

The Market is accessed via a new shopping cart button which appears on the main toolbar which is displayed when users are logged-in to Kitely. Once the Market is fully open, the button will allow users to start browsing stores and goods. However, until then, the button will display an introductory message which explains that access to the Market is currently limited to merchants wishing to create a store.

The blog post provides detailed instructions to merchants on creating their store, using the store home page, and managing, editing and modifying products and listings. Additionally, Kitely are also providing on-line documentation for the Market, which provides information on important aspects of the Market such as product pricing options and listing guidelines.

Adding products to a Kitely Marketplace store - image courtesy of Kitely
Adding products to a Kitely Marketplace store (image courtesy of Kitely)

The Market also enables merchants to include multiple variations of a product within a single listing. So rather than having 5 individual listings for an outfit which is available in 5 different colours, a merchant will be able to create a single listing for the outfit, which includes the 5 different colours. The merchant will also be able to define individual prices, permissions and search attributes against each variation, if required.

One item which merchants will not initially be able to sell through the Market is OAR files.

“You can’t sell OAR files directly,” Ilan Tochner, Kitely’s CEO said, “but you’ll eventually be able to sell entire Virtual Worlds so instead of just having the two virtual world templates we offer you now when you create a new world, you’ll be able to find and buy the perfect virtual world for the activity you have in mind. Once you buy that world a new world will be automatically created inside the My Worlds page in your account, at which point you’ll be able to export it to an OAR file.”

Export Permissions

An important element within the Market is Kitely’s new “Export” permissions flag, which is separate to the familiar modify / copy / transfer permissions associated with a product, and allows a merchant to specify whether or not a purchased item can leave the grid. This means, for example, that if a user buys an OAR file for a Kitely world and attempts to save it to their hard drive, only those elements of the OAR file which have the Export flag set will actually be saved – anything which does not have the flag set will be ignored.

Currency Options and Fees

Products in the Market can be sold using either Kitely Credits (KCs), Kitely’s own non-exchangeable virtual currency, or using US dollars (USD), where payments are handled directly via PayPal.

Continue reading “Kitely Market opens for merchants” →

Out of the glare of the Sun

Posted on by Inara Pey

CuriosityIt’s been over a month since I last reported on the Mars Science Laboratory mission on Mars. It’s not that I’d forgotten about it or lost interest in writing MSL reports; the lull has been because during the month of April, we’ve been in a period of Solar conjunction, which places Earth and Mars on opposite sides of the Sun relative to one another.

During these periods, communications between Earth and vehicles operating on and around Mars are severely disrupted / curtailed due to interference from the Sun, so NASA effectively places all of their Mars missions on “autopilot” until full communications can be re-established with them from Earth. This happened early in May, and since then, mission scientists and engineers have been running the Curiosity rover through a series of checks to confirm it is still OK after its enforced silence and also completing a complete software update.

Just prior to the moratorium on Earth / Mars communications coming into effect, Curiosity had been engaged in analysing samples obtained from drilling into a rock dubbed “John Klein” (see: Getting the scoop on drilling, and: It probably doesn’t taste like chicken …). The analysis was performed by the rover’s on-board Chemistry and Minerology (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments, and produced evidence of an ancient wet environment that provided favorable conditions for microbial life, including both the elemental ingredients for life and a chemical energy gradient such as some terrestrial microbes exploit as an energy source.

Sol 229 (March 29th, 2013) The first holes drill into rock by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, with drill tailings around the holes plus piles of powdered rock collected from the deeper hole and later discarded after other portions of the sample had been delivered to analytical instruments inside the rover. The two holes are each 1.6 cm (0.6 in) in diameter. The shallower hole was cut on Sol 180 (Feb. 6, 2013) as a preparatory test. The deeper hole was bored on Sol 182 (Feb 8, 2013) and cuttings from this hole gathered by the drill were delivered to Curiosity’s on-board Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments.

A Reduced, but Still Dynamic Atmosphere

Mars has a very thin atmosphere, so thin that the highest atmospheric density on Mars is equal to the density of the atmosphere found 35 km (22 miles) above the Earth‘s surface. However, evidence for free-flowing water having once existed on Mars suggests that the atmosphere was once very much denser. The mystery has been what happened to that atmosphere? Several theories have been put forward over the years to explain the apparent loss in atmospheric density, one of them being that over the millennia, much of Mars’ atmosphere “bled off” into space due to a combination of factors. As a result of data returned from Curiosity in March, scientists found the strongest evidence to date for this being the case.

Continue reading “Out of the glare of the Sun” →