How to Help Mars Robots With Their Missions

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie over a rock nicknamed “Rochette,” on September 10.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie over a rock nicknamed “Rochette,” on September 10. NASA

NASA would like everyone to pitch in.

This weekend I spent quite a bit of time helping Mars rovers learn how to avoid various mission-killing traps like the large rock fields and deep sand pits that are spread out all across the surface of the red planet. And NASA would like everyone to pitch in and assist the 12,000 of us who have already joined that effort.

Historically, the Mars rovers have performed extremely well. Most of them launched with anticipated mission windows spanning just a few weeks or months, but lasted for years in that very harsh environment. However, the perils of Mars are myriad. In addition to things like extremely cold temperatures, radiation and violent dust storms, even the landscape of Mars can swallow up an unwary rover. That is what happened to Spirit. Launched in 2003 on a 90-day mission, it survived for seven years while exploring the unknown parts of Mars. It was finally done in by the same thing that often wrecks my golf game, a deep sand pit that it accidentally wandered into.

The scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory would like to avoid losing future rovers to those kinds of traps. And to do that, they need to teach the little robots how to recognize and avoid the kind of terrain that can permanently end their roving. They would like to accomplish that using machine learning technologies and algorithms which are not too different from what empowers self-driving cars back on Earth. But instead of scanning for stop signs and wandering pedestrians, the rovers are mostly concerned with what’s under their wheels.

But NASA has millions of pictures and video frames of the Martian landscape taken by various rovers over the years. The trick is taking all those pictures and turning them into data that will help the robots identify what they are seeing. And that requires human ingenuity, which is where I, along with 12,000 others so far, are helping out.

NASA originally started with a subset of about 1,000 images as a proof of concept. Admittedly, the sample size was a little small, so the first SPOC (Soil Property and Object Classification) algorithm only achieved about a 40% accuracy rate. But after shifting the categories a little bit and adding 100,000 more images, the accuracy shot up to 91.41% for version two. Now, NASA would like to improve that even further, and everyone is invited to help out.

To improve the accuracy of the algorithm, NASA is asking for help from the public. This kind of crowd sourcing has been wildly successful in the past with everything from fighting disease and designing medicine to helping find cost savings and solving other problems at federal agencies. So the idea behind enlisting the public’s help for important projects is a sound one. And as a bonus, NASA has made its new project pretty fun.

The AI4Mars project tasks volunteers to look at sometimes stunning images of Mars taken from various rover missions and identify the types of rocks and soil found there. It’s almost like one of those hidden object type games which are so popular on mobile phones these days.

How you “play” the AI4Mars project is by selecting one of the terrain types listed along the side of the screen. They include different soils like those embedded with bedrock, pebbles, veins, hills and float rocks. And of course it also includes finding dangerous patches of sand. When you click on a terrain type on the side of the page, the cursor will change color to match it. You then must outline the type of terrain that you are identifying. Some of the major terrain groups have subtypes that you should also identify. There is a tutorial that shows you how to do everything which you can bring up at any time if you get stuck or can’t identify something. 

Every piece of classified terrain will help to tune the SPOC algorithm and teach future rovers how to safely navigate around Mars. That said, there are a few terrain types that NASA is most interested in classifying. This includes tall rocks over 30 centimeters in height, because they are relatively rare in the photos. So if you find one, it’s kind of a big deal. And, of course, NASA also really wants to identify sand so that rovers don’t fall into mission-ending traps like Spirit did.

The new project is 28% complete, so there is still lots of work to do and much help needed. If you have a good eye for rocks and want to help future Mars missions, NASA would love it if you could join me and the other volunteers in helping to make an alien environment a little safer for our intrepid robot explorers.

John Breeden II is an award-winning journalist and reviewer with over 20 years of experience covering technology. He is the CEO of the Tech Writers Bureau, a group that creates technological thought leadership content for organizations of all sizes. Twitter: @LabGuys

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.