. . . not called Curiosity!
In light of the newest Mars rover hogging the spotlight, it’s time to introduce Curiosity’s lesser-known, more down-to-earth cousin with a penchant for getting wet.
This rover is helping NASA study climate change in the arctic, and its control and communication systems are managed by a Panda.
Really! Wow. Where can I read more about it?
That looks cool, was surprised how big it is as it doesnt look overly large in the first shot.
Awesome
Anyway we can see the panda in the picture as well 
This is very cool.
Definitely post a link to more info. That looks like an awesome project.
It was first deployed this July, so you probably won’t see much about the boat itself, but here’s a link to the general research project:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-217
And here’s a link to a research paper written using data from its predecessor (warning: it’s a real page-turner!)
This new boat is helping to calibrate the sensor readings from an orbiting satellite. I designed the electronics for it, and in this case our customer was a scientist at JPL who does research in Greenland and is also a project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory. What a cool coincidence!
Great! Thank you!
[quote=“Iggmoe”]
…and its control and communication systems are managed by a Panda.
[/quote]
What ?! No Gadgeteer inside ? 
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist)
Heh heh. No Gadgeteer in this case, since GHI’s premium libraries really came in handy.
I’m drooling over the G120 though. I’ve already got several projects lined up for that.
I can’t find any references to Panda, FEZ, or GHI in either of the documents. 
This really needs to get over into the project showcase. Iggmoe, do you have any more pics or details you can share regarding how the Panda is used in this project?
I’d love to share specific implementation details, but it would have to be blessed by upper management first, since the boat is a commercial product, and the bosses are rather careful about IP. Maybe in a future post.
I’m really loving the stuff GHI offers. FEZ’s ability to get products to market so quickly is quite phenomenal. I can only imagine all the awesome applications that we don’t hear about, which is the reason why I decided to post this project now. I may not be able to show you the guts of the thing, but at least you know what it’s used for!
In the next few months, the G120 is gonna find itself inside a high-power radio and an oceanographic instrument, and likely several other products.
GHI boards in real live NASA test equipment?!? Wowsa! And I thought the topic title was a joke!
@ Iggmoe - Whatever you can keep us up to date on about these projects would be very much appreciated. We eat this kind of stuff up
@ Iggmoe - I sent you an email. Please let me know your thoughts in an email.
The NASA boat is a customized version of our company’s standard Z-Boat product, which is detailed in this trade article:
(In case anyone wants to know a tiny bit more about what the Panda is doing inside.)
And here’s a video of the standard boat in action:
That’s awesome! If we can get a fleet of these together, can finally find out where Nessy is hiding in Loch Ness!
Well Iggmoe you’re ex points are going through the roof!