Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!microsoft!wingnut!petesk
From: petesk@microsoft.com (Pete Skelly)
Subject: Re: How to send robots to Erebus, Mars ?
Message-ID: <1993Jan12.085239.10113@microsoft.com>
Date: 12 Jan 93 08:52:39 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corp.
Keywords: Erebus, microrovers, Dante
References: <58554@dime.cs.umass.edu> <C0nwnE.1w2.1@cs.cmu.edu>
Lines: 20

In article <58554@dime.cs.umass.edu> connolly@pooh.cs.umass.edu wrote:
> Two more cents: The debate over "microvers" (whatever they are) and
> "not microvers" seems to miss the mark here, in my opinion.
> 
> In article <C0nwnE.1w2.1@cs.cmu.edu> lalit+@CS.CMU.EDU (Lalitesh Katragadda) writes:
> >   The primary purpose of Dante was not to build a Robot but to fulfill
> >   a mission that was till now not possible (see below).
> 
> If data collection on Erebus is the objective, then Dante's primary
> purpose was not achieved, right?  The conclusion is "well, we learned
> something", which is nothing to sneeze at, but it again begs the
> question: why couldn't you do all this on a suitable environment in
> Pittsburgh?

In a nutshell....

Flashy projects make for good PR, and therefore, big grants...
(alright, maybe a bit cynical, but politics play a big part in projects
such as this)

