Step inside JPL's robot lab, where we run tests for NASA's Mars Exploration robots. You're in the viewing gallery. Pam, a scientist, sits on a stool on the floor below with a laptop on her lap. All around Pam, it looks like Mars. At her feet, sand, dirt and rocks create the ground. Behind her a colorful cloth helps keep the lab looking like Mars. On the back wall, rotating pictures show past and future robot missions.
Pam uses her laptop to command a robot to roll across the terrain. She explains that this robot is a test model of the robots Spirit and Opportunity. When the robot finds itself in an unusual situation on Mars, engineers create that environment here in our lab.
Engineers use the test robot to figure out a solution and then send up commands telling the robot what to do.
