GROVER the NASA rover takes on Greenland ice sheet

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Nipuna
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GROVER the NASA rover takes on Greenland ice sheet

Post by Nipuna » Wed May 15, 2013 1:22 pm

(Image: Lora Koenig/NASA Goddard)
(Image: Lora Koenig/NASA Goddard)
dn23537-1_1200[1].jpg (111.88 KiB) Viewed 2092 times
Like its cousin Curiosity, currently busy exploring Mars this NASA rover is exploring a cold and inhospitable land. It hasn't had to travel so far to get there, though.

The Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research, or GROVER, is trundling across Greenland to measure changes in the ice sheet with ground-penetrating radar. This should help researchers to better understand the effects of climate change.

GROVER is a much cheaper data-gathering option than aircraft or satellite monitoring. As it is fully solar-powered, its impact on the polar environmental is minimal. High, V-shaped solar panels let the rover harvest energy both directly from the sun and also from sunlight bounced off the ice.
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