NASA taught the Mars rovers new tricks

The Spirit and Opportunity SUVs that have been on Mars for three years have received a software upgrade that will give them a little more independence

The places Spirit explored as photographed from space

NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity are approaching the third anniversary of their landing on the surface of Mars. Spirit already celebrated on January 3rd and Opportunity will celebrate 21 days later. They were even designed to operate for a few months.

NASA engineers here on Earth have developed a new software package for the robotic SUVs, based on the Wind River operating system, a software package that teaches them some new skills.

The first trick will enable them to make smart decisions when exploring clouds and dust sprites. They had already filmed the mini-tornado earlier. The vehicles will now be able to analyze photos taken in a short time and look for signs of dust elves in them, and will transmit to Earth only the relevant parts of the photos, thus saving bandwidth.

The second trick is called "visual target tracking". The vehicles will be able to identify markings on the surface while moving, and this will help them know what the relative position is to the formations. They will be able to maneuver around obstacles much faster.

The third feature will allow the vehicles to locate targets of scientific value on their own. Instead of waiting for orders from Earth, they will be able to analyze their local environment and choose a location to study targets that can give the best scientific output.

These new improvements will be able to speed up their travel speed and increase the number of places they can analyze on the surface of Mars.