blank space engineers have been using AI in rovers for some sentence now — hence why today ’s Mars Internet Explorer are able topick a safe landing place siteand todrive around a region autonomously . But something they have n’t been able to do before now is to do science themselves , as most of that work is done by scientists on Earth who analyze data and point the bird of passage toward targets they want to investigate .
Now , though , NASA ’s Perseverance rover is taking the first footstep toward self-reliant skill investigation on Mars . The rover has been testing out an AI capableness for the last three years , which allow for it to research for and name particular minerals in Mars rocks . The system works using the rover ’s PIXL legal instrument ( Planetary Instrument for X - ray Lithochemistry ) , a spectrometer that uses light to analyze what rocks are made of . The software , called adaptive sampling , looks though PIXL ’s datum and identifies minerals to be studied in more item .
“ We use PIXL ’s AI to home in on cardinal science , ” explained PIXL ’s principal investigator , Abigail Allwood of NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory , in astatement . “ Without it , you ’d see a hint of something interesting in the information and then need to rescan the rock to meditate it more . This lets PIXL strive a termination without humans examine the data . ”
The scheme runs on board the rover , with no intervention from Earth required . That means it save on wanted time , not only by pick out targets for the scientists but also because it does n’t require lengthy communicating clock time .
“ The thought behind PIXL ’s adaptive sample distribution is to help scientists find the acerate leaf within a haystack of data , freeing up metre and vigor for them to concentrate on other things , ” enjoin Peter Lawson , one of the developer of the software package . “ Ultimately , it helps us gather the good skill more quickly . ”
The AI system work by choose data point from PIXL , then reposition the tool ( which is mounted on Perseverance ’s arm ) using its camera so it can get in close to take a detailed meter reading without hitting the rock . you could see the system in legal action in a(kind of adorable ) videoof an Earth - base manakin of PIXL . The system will take a reading from one humble patch of rock , and if it finds indications of minerals that are interesting to science , it can automatically collect more data on that arena .
“ PIXL is kind of a Swiss army knife in that it can be configured depending on what the scientists are look for at a give clock time , ” said David Thompson , who helped develop the software program . “ Mars is a great post to screen out AI since we have steady communications each day , establish us a chance to make tweaks along the way . ”
