AUTHOR NEEDs ASSISTANCE FOR A BOOK - MCC; Robotic Mission

[mlddmc123]

I am a Hard Sci Fi author. I am writing a book where I have several loads which include robotic assembly a space elevator on Phobos. I would appreciate anyone who could give me insight into how a robotic mission is handled from here on Earth - what goes on in MCC. I really want to accurately portray it in the book. *There will be something going wrong in that scene with the robotic mission so how that is handed by MCC would be extremely helpful.


Thank You!

[Jarnis]

I am a Hard Sci Fi author. I am writing a book where I have several loads which include robotic assembly a space elevator on Phobos. I would appreciate anyone who could give me insight into how a robotic mission is handled from here on Earth - what goes on in MCC. I really want to accurately portray it in the book. *There will be something going wrong in that scene with the robotic mission so how that is handed by MCC would be extremely helpful.


Thank You!

Well, first thing that comes to mind - transmission lag between Earth and Mars/Phobos means that any operations there will not be controlled from Earth directly. Instead batches of commands are pre-planned, tested and then sent.

Considering how clumsy this is with the current rovers, any serious building operation would almost certainly need either people on-site to oversee/command the machinery, or some really really really good autonomous programming.

I guess you could have a fully automated factory building major components without that much need for commanding, but I doubt the assembly itself can be automated to such a degree that it could be orchestrated from Earth without major pains.

[Burninate]

We are just barely above the level where we send individual servo commands like 'turn left front wheel clockwise 3 degrees'.  That's because we're running one rover... very, very slowly.  Faster & with a higher level of abstraction than previous rovers, *sure*, but every command is analyzed.  The first few rovers were more like RC cars that were slowed down to millimeters per minute.

A swarm of hundreds of rovers would permit (and perhaps require) a much higher level of abstraction and local AI, with humans more in the business of getting them out of trouble in an emergency.  The economics are much better on constructing classes of things than on constructing single units, as well.

[KelvinZero]

I am a Hard Sci Fi author. I am writing a book where I have several loads which include robotic assembly a space elevator on Phobos. I would appreciate anyone who could give me insight into how a robotic mission is handled from here on Earth - what goes on in MCC. I really want to accurately portray it in the book. *There will be something going wrong in that scene with the robotic mission so how that is handed by MCC would be extremely helpful.

Thank You!

Rather than jumping into the robots vs humans debate, lets define the task in some more detail. What is this elevator constructed of? Is it made from Phobos ISRU or shipped there from Earth/moon with SEP for example? Is moving Phobos to a mars-geostationary orbit part of the mission? Is there any human presence in the vicinity either in a phobos base or in a small antarctica-like outpost on Mars for example?

ps, Im not really a fan of space elevators, for pretty much the same reason that hardSF authors seem to love them. Terrorists and other mishaps are always lining up to make a really exciting catastrophe out of them.

[Robotbeat]

A Phobos elevator could be made out of human hair. Zylon would suffice.

[KelvinZero]

A Phobos elevator could be made out of human hair. Zylon would suffice.

Ahh sorry, I assumed a space elevator to Mars with Phobos as an anchor. There was a forum thread somewhere about an elevator to Phobos.