rover

Mars rover no more, but Spirit lives on

NASA's Mars rover Spirit isn't dead yet, but it has reached its final resting place.

After months of unsuccessful attempts at freeing the rover from a sandtrap, NASA on Tuesday said it has decided to make the best of the situation and instruct it to conduct scientific experiments from its current location.

The rover became trapped last April when one of its wheels broke through a crusty Martian surface and dug into the fine, powdery soil beneath it. After many so-called extraction activities, including wiggling the wheels and rotating them very slowly, NASA scientists have decided to stop … Read more

Mars rover Spirit's days may be numbered

One of NASA's seemingly immortal Mars rovers might soon be at the end of its days.

The Spirit rover had been cruising around the Red Planet, along with its companion, Opportunity, since they both arrived six years ago this month. (Spirit landed on January 3, 2004, while Opportunity landed on January 24 of that year.) Their mission to send back photos and data about the Martian surface was expected to last a mere 90 days. Instead, the two traveling research bots blew away all expectations, continuing their treks year after year.

However, scientists warn that Spirit's most recent … Read more

Could this be the world's heaviest drag race?

Having spent time behind the steering wheels of the BMW X6 M, the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, the Infiniti FX50S, and the Range Rover Sport, I was fairly certain that I could predict the outcome of Autocar's drag race between the four sporty SUVs (is that a bit redundant?). And for the most part, I was right. I won't spoil the ending for you, but I can't help but to think that the outcome would be decidedly different and much more interesting if this race where held off-road! I mean, these are SUVs after all.

Place your bets … Read more

Land Rover and Jaguar versus Santa Claus

The combined Land Rover/Jaguar company, now owned by Indian automaker Tata, had a little fun for the holidays, coming up with concept images for Santa's sleigh, one designed by Jaguar, and the other by Land Rover.

Jaguar went retro with its concept, designing a flying sleigh with what looks like a twin prop on a 1950s-style aircraft. Santa is exposed in this open-canopy concept, but he's used to it.

Land Rover went futuristic with its land-based speeder design. Being a Land Rover, we assume it handles rough terrain well. It also looks like the cockpit is designed … Read more

2010 gas-guzzlers: Land Rover Range Rover Sport

This week, we've been taking a look at some of 2010's biggest gas-guzzlers. Not surprisingly, this list has been chock full of utility vehicles, and today's blog chalks up yet another entry for Land Rover. Yesterday, we got a look-see at the 2010 LR4, and our newest inductee into the Low Mileage Hall of Fame is the Land Rover Range Rover Sport (which also wins another award for the most redundant vehicle name ever). The LRRRS boasts average gas mileage of 12 mpg in the city and 17 mpg on the highway--not god awful, but certainly nothing … Read more

Another 2010 gas guzzler: Land Rover LR4

So here we go with another Web video clip of a Class A gas guzzler for the year 2010, the Land Rover LR4, which by all accounts is supposed to take the place of the LR3. This 2010 SUV with a 5-liter V8 engine averages 14 mpg between city and highway driving and sells for nearly 50 grand.

This video is a little different than what I've been presenting here lately; it demonstrates how the surround-vision (my own terminology, thank you very much) cameras in the LR4 can aid the driver of this big ol' SUV. It shows all … Read more

Red-hot robot action from WowWee

When the folks from WowWee visited CNET UK the other day, we were amused to hear them refer to their robotic wares Rovio, Joebot, and RoboRover as "he" and "him." But dang it if we weren't doing the same within five minutes of seeing the little fellas trundling about, flashing their lights, and generally charming their servos off.

Read more of "WowWee Rovio, Joebot, Cinemin and RoboRover: Red-hot robot action" at Crave UK.

Audio Slideshow: NASA Marscape

At NASA's Marscape at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., scientists are busy playing around with the hardware and software that will one day become our eyes and ears in space. It's part lab, part playground, and the idea is to simulate the challenging conditions which NASA robots will encounter while exploring moons and planets. Terry Fong, director of the Intelligent Robotics Group at the NASA Ames Research Center, takes us behind the scenes and gives us an up close look at the research and development his team is doing in embedded systems, human-computer interaction, robotics and … Read more

Piloting a lunar rover

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--For a few minutes Thursday, as I steered one of NASA's K10 intelligent robots across a small field of rocky, sandy terrain, I could almost imagine myself piloting the rover across the surface of Mars or the moon.

Until, that is, I realized I had pretty much no idea what I was doing, and saw that my struggles to steer the rover forward were actually sending it backward. Given that this little robot is worth at least as much as a mid-range Mercedes, I was relieved to see the eagle-eyed scientist standing a few feet away … Read more

Land Rover confirms a shrunken Range Rover

Land Rover confirmed today that it will produce a small Range Rover based on the LRX concept it showed at the 2008 Detroit auto show. The company offered no specifications, but promised more details next year. The announcement merely says that the small SUV will be part of the Range Rover model lineup and will go into production in 2011.

The LRX concept featured an attractive design in a small package. Click here to see our video from the Detroit show. The body-colored roof appears to float over the top of the car due to black pillars, although Kia may … Read more