火星探險

NASA'S MARS ROVER CURIOSITY IS BACK IN ACTION FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER SUFFERING A GLITCH LATE LAST MONTH.

    The 1-ton Curiosity rover transferred powdered rock sample from its robotic arm to an analytical instrument on its body on Wednesday (March 11), and then drove about 33 feet (10 meters) toward the southwest on Thursday (March 12), NASA officials said.

Curiosity had been stationary since Feb. 27, when it experienced a short circuit while attempting to transfer the sample, which the rover had collected from a rock dubbed Telegraph Peak.

"That precious Telegraph Peak sample had been sitting in the arm, so tantalizingly close, for two weeks. We are really excited to get it delivered for analysis," Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.

Engineers have spent much of the past two weeks trying to figure out exactly what caused the short circuit. Testing suggests that it originated in the percussive mechanism for Curiosity's arm-mounted drill (which hammers as well as rotates to bore into rock).

The rover team will continue their analyses to determine how to proceed with future drilling work, NASA officials said.

Curiosity has performed six sample-collecting drilling operations since landing on Mars in August 2012. Analysis of some of these samples has helped rover scientists determine that the Red Planet could have supported microbial life in the ancient past.

Curiosity is moving away from an outcrop at the base of the towering Mount Sharp called Pahrump Hills, which the six-wheeled robot has been studying since last September. Curiosity will head to higher ground on Mount Sharp, via a valley called Artist's Drive.

"Road to Wellville: In good health, doing science & heading higher on Mt Sharp," NASA officials said Thursday via Curiosity's official Twitter account, @MarsCuriosity.

Mount Sharp has been Curiosity's prime science destination since before its November 2011 launch. The rover's handlers want Curiosity to climb up through the mountain's lower levels, reading a history of Mars' changing environmental conditions as it goes.

Curiosity transferred some Telegraph Peak powder to its Chemisty and Mineralogy instrument, or CheMin, on Wednesday. The rover will also deliver some of the sample to its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument soon, NASA officials said.

http://www.space.com/28823-mars-rover-curiosity-short-circuit-drive.html

WHAT- Back in action for the first time

WHEN- after suffering a glitch late last month

 transferred -轉移

analyse-分析

microbial -微生物的

instrument-工具.儀器

circuit -巡迴

VR

What is Virtual Reality?

The definition of virtual reality comes, naturally, from the definitions for both ‘virtual’ and ‘reality’. The definition of ‘virtual’ is near and reality is what we experience as human beings. So the term ‘virtual reality’ basically means ‘near-reality’. This could, of course, mean anything but it usually refers to a specific type of reality emulation.

We know the world through our senses and perception systems. In school we all learned that we have five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. These are however only our most obvious sense organs. The truth is that humans have many more senses than this, such as a sense of balance for example. These other sensory inputs, plus some special processing of sensory information by our brains ensures that we have a rich flow of information from the environment to our minds.

Everything that we know about our reality comes by way of our senses. In other words, our entire experience of reality is simply a combination of sensory information and our brains sense-making mechanisms for that information. It stands to reason then, that if you can present your senses with made-up information, your perception of reality would also change in response to it. You would be presented with a version of reality that isn’t really there, but from your perspective it would be perceived as real. Something we would refer to as a virtual reality.

So, in summary, virtual reality entails presenting our senses with a computer generated virtual environment that we can explore in some fashion.

In technical terms…

Answering “what is virtual reality” in technical terms is straight-forward. Virtual reality is the term used to describe a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person. That person becomes part of this virtual world or is immersed within this environment and whilst there, is able to manipulate objects or perform a series of actions.

How is virtual reality achieved?

Although we talk about a few historical early forms of virtual reality elsewhere on the site, today virtual reality is usually implemented using computer technology. There are a range of systems that are used for this purpose, such as headsets, omni-directional treadmills and special gloves. These are used to actually stimulate our senses together in order to create the illusion of reality.

This is more difficult than it sounds, since our senses and brains are evolved to provide us with a finely synchronized and mediated experience. If anything is even a little off we can usually tell. This is where you’ll hear terms such asimmersiveness  and realism enter the conversation. These issues that divide convincing or enjoyable virtual reality experiences from jarring or unpleasant ones are partly technical and partly conceptual. Virtual reality technology needs to take our physiology into account. For example, the human visual field does not look like a video frame. We have (more or less) 180 degrees of vision and although you are not alwconsciously aware of your peripheral vision, if it were gone you’d notice. Similarly when what your eyes and the vestibular system in your ears tell you are in conflict it can cause motion sickness. Which is what happens to some people on boats or when they read while in a car.

If an implementation of virtual reality manages to get the combination of hardware, software and sensory synchronicity just right it achieves something known as a sense of presence. Where the subject really feels like they are present in that environment.

http://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/what-is-virtual-reality.html

What -virtual reality

How- from the definitions for both ‘virtual’ and ‘reality’

dimensional -空間的
manipulate-操作
synchroniaed-同步的
mediated-調停
immersed-侵入的