If you think using the Leap Motion controller for playing air guitar and typing without a keyboard was cool, try using it to control a NASA rover. Victor Luo and Jeff Norris from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab got on stage at the Game Developers Conference here in San Francisco to do just that with the ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer), which was located 383 miles away in Pasadena. As Luo waved his hand over the sensor, the robot moved in kind, reacting to the subtle movements of his fingers and wrists, wowing the crowd that watched it over a projected Google+ Hangout.

We spoke with Luo and Norris after the panel to gain further insight into the project. As Luo explains, one of JPL's main goals is to build tools to control robots needed for space exploration. Seeing as the gaming industry is already rife with user-friendly controllers ripe for the plucking, it made sense to harness them for the job. "We're very used to the bleeding edge," he said. "From the Kinect to the PlayStation Move, they represent major investments into usability." Hit the jump for our impressions of the simulation software, a look at JPL's grander goal and for video clips of the demo and panel itself.

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Source: NASA JPL

If you truly were terrified during the Seven Minutes of Terror that saw the Curiosity Rover successfully land on Mars, you can blame NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Tom Rivellini. As JPL's Principal Engineer for Entry Descent and Landing Systems, Rivellini co-invented the sky crane landing system that helped the rover plant its wheels on the red planet. He met with us backstage to discuss the challenges that have been encountered with these feats of engineering, and what he's currently working on: a new parachute and heat shield system for landing spacecraft carrying humans or larger rovers on Mars. Hit the jump for the full interview on video.

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The Curiosity rover has been in an especially precarious position since late last week, when a memory glitch forced it into a safe mode while NASA prepared a backup and diagnosed the trouble. We're glad to report that the worst is over. Scientists have confirmed that the rover left safe mode later on Saturday and started using its high-gain antenna for communication a day later. However, it's not quite out of the woods yet -- if Mars had woods, that is. The backup is still taking on the information it needs to assume full responsibility, and NASA wants to evaluate the suitability of the one-time primary computer as the new backup. Nonetheless, all the early indicators point to Martian exploration going back on track within days.

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Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA's Curiosity rover has mostly had smooth sailing since it touched down on Mars last year. Unfortunately, it's in a more precarious position as of this past Thursday. After noticing corrupted memory files on the robot's primary computer, overseers have kicked Curiosity into a "safe mode" with a backup computer while they determine what's wrong and deliver any viable fixes. Don't think of this like you would the Safe Mode on a Windows PC, though. While the backup can serve as a replacement for the main computer, project manager Richard Cook warns Space.com that it will likely take "several days" to supply enough information that the failsafe can take over. NASA will switch back to the main computer if and when it's ready; if it is, the agency hopes to harden the code against future flaws. Curiosity will effectively stay on ice in the meantime... and not the variety it might want to find.

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Source: Space.com

It's been three months since NASA's Curiosity rover set foot wheels down on Martian terrain, and now the space agency has divulged what it's learned about radiation on Mars. Marking the first time radiation has been measured from the surface of another planet, preliminary data collected using the rover's Radiation Assessment Detector (or RAD for short) revealed that levels on the ground are similar to what astronauts encounter on the International Space Station. What's that mean for space travel? "The astronauts can live in this environment," Don Hassler, principal investigator on Curiosity's RAD hardware, said in a press conference. However, humans would still experience higher levels of radiation on the way to and from the red planet than on its surface. The results are encouraging, but they're just one of many developments left before Homo sapiens set foot on Mars. For more details on the RAD's findings, look below for the press release.

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Via: CNET

Source: NASA / JPL

Curiosity may have spent a while limbering up for the mission ahead, but now it's found evidence of an ancient streambed on Mars that once had "vigorous" water flow. Photos of two rock outcroppings taken by the rover's mast camera between the north rim of Gale Crater and the foot of Mount Sharp reveal gravel embedded into a layer of conglomerate rock. The shape of the small stones indicate to NASA JPL scientists that they were previously moved, and their size (think from grains of sand to golf balls) are a telltale sign that water did the work instead of wind. Evidence of H2O on Mars has been spotted before, but this is the first direct look at the composition of riverbeds NASA has observed from above.

According to Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich, it's estimated that water flowed at the site anywhere from thousands to millions of years ago, moved at a clip of roughly 3 feet per second and was somewhere between ankle and hip deep. "A long-flowing stream can be a habitable environment," Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger said. "It is not our top choice as an environment for preservation of organics, though. We're still going to Mount Sharp, but this is insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment."

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Via: Computer World, CNN

Source: NASA (JPL)

If the MakerBot store in Manhattan is the East coast's vanguard for 3D printer stores, Deezmaker's just-opened store in Pasadena, California is the equivalent pioneer for the West coast crew. As of now, you can walk through the doors at 290 North Hill Avenue and at least see the store's own Bukobot printer in action, even if high demand through Kickstarter pre-orders precludes walk-in sales for the next few weeks. When you can make that impulse purchase, however, you'll find the Bukobot at a relatively cheap $600 and may see some alternatives during your visit. Store owner and Bukobot creator Diego Porqueras stresses to Ars Technica that he wants Deezmaker lasting for the long haul, and he may have chosen just the right area to make that happen -- the shop is a stone's throw from the experimenters (and simply curious) at Caltech, NASA's JPL and Pasadena City College. No matter how it all shakes out, we're hoping that the two near-simultaneous store openings are the start of a larger trend that takes 3D printing into the mainstream.

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Via: Ars Technica

Source: Deezmaker

As NASA promised, Curiosity has stopped at the quarter pole toward its first scientific destination to test its robotic arm and attached scientific instruments. After 100 yards of driving, the rover extended its 7-foot limb, and will now spend six to ten days checking its predetermined positions and range of motion. That will ensure the appendage is ready after surviving the chilly vaccuum of space and subsequent setdown, and will let its minders see how it functions in the unfamiliar Martian gravity and temperatures. The JPL scientists in charge of the six-wheeler will also peep the Mars Hand Lens Imager and made-in-Canada Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer to warrant that they're up for all the geology to come. If all goes well, the rover will start scooping, drilling and analyzing in earnest when it hits Glenelg, then Mount Sharp -- so, we'd limber up first before tackling all that, too.

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Via: PhysOrg

Source: NASA/JPL

If you thought your OTA update took too long, how about four days? That's how long the Curiosity "brain transplant" took, and is now finally complete. This now means that the main computers have switched over from landing mode, to surface mode -- and thus we hope -- meaning the rover's good to go. That said, it's still a painfully slow process, with Curiosity's wheels likely remaining steadfastly motionless for at least another week -- and even then we're looking at a trip of just a few meters. When it comes to interplanetary travel, though, slow and steady definitely wins the race -- in the meantime, you can soak up the view.

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Have you been lapping up every pixel Curiosity sends back, but wishing you could somehow see those panoramas as nature intended? Well, thanks to kind 360 Cities user Andrew Bodrov, you can. The controls take a little getting used to, but persevere and you'll be rewarded with a view as if you were atop Curiosity itself. We're already imagining the fun if this was in the next Google Maps update, who knows what might turn up. Land on the source for the mind-blow.

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Think it's nifty when your carrier deigns to provide your smartphone with that long awaited OTA update? That's nothing. Over the weekend, NASA's Curiosity rover will be receiving its first long-distance OTA update -- all the way out there on Mars. The goal is to transition both redundant main computers from software suited for landing the vehicle to software optimized for surface exploration -- such as driving, obstacle avoidance and using the robotic arm. NASA calls it a "brain transplant" and points out that the software was actually uploaded during the flight from Earth. Now can someone please enable OTA downloads for the human brain? We'd really like to know kung fu. PR after the break.

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After "seven minutes of terror" involving guided entry, parachute and powered descent, and even a sky crane, NASA's Curiosity rover has successfully touched down on the surface of Mars. Better yet, the 2,000lbs (900kg) science lab has established communications with Earth and is sending back telemetry along with the first pictures of Gale crater. These initial grayscale images are only 256 x 256 pixels in size but show Curiosity's shadow on the Martian soil. Peek at our galley below and stay tuned for updates.

Update: Hit the break to check out a video of all the "seven minutes of terror" highlights.

Gallery: NASA's Curiosity first pictures of Mars

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