Monday, June 11, 2001 - The Mic 'U' rovers designed to roam red planet By Maia Sprow explore the surface, they need to be able Daily Nws Editor to get around .. the vehicle that we are building can travel 600 miles." Humans living on Mars is soon to be After they are complete, the rovers science, not fiction, proclaimed a recent will head to Nevada to a Mars testing announcemnent made by National Aero- station, a simulated environment where nautics and Space Administration offi- they will encounter the same obstacles cials. New estimates report that humans they would on the actual planet. could be on Mars in two decades But Paulson said neither Everest nor there is much to be done in the mean- Olympus would likely make the actual time. journey to Mars, but testing them on the Helping out in the process is the Uno- Mars habitat could prove useful when versity's School of Engineering. The designing new prototypes. school is w'strkittg Otn the Mars Rover, a "We expect the process of building a terrain vehicl' that will assist human rover to take several prototypes," said exploration on Mars, serving as a Paulson. "We expect that in a few years mobile home and research center for when an actual Mars rover is going to go three people for up to two weeks. to Mars, it will be based on our design" The team, consisting of almost 50 The project started last year when University students, the majority of Mars Society had a design contest to whom are undergraduates, is currently build a vehicle that could also function working on their first rover named Ever- as a living space and laboratory. The est. After finishing Everest, they will go University was chosen as one of three on to build a more complex vehicle, teams to work on the project. called Olympus, which will be com- The Everest is scheduled to be pletely remote controlled. unveiled at the Mars Society Conven- "What we are doing is building a tion at Stanford University August 23- vehicle that would be necessary when 26. Students can view interior and humans travel to Mars," said Anna Paul- exterior pictures of the rover on the son, the project manager of the Universi- web at marsroverengin.umich.edu. ty's Mars Rover Project. "In order to One of the biggest challenges facing Courtesyof theMairsiRove am wosite The Everest was designed by University students for Mars Society. the team initially was the amount of space allotted for the vehicle. "The vehicle had to fit into a C-130 spacecraft ... it has very tight space requirements, width and height," said Engineering senior Warren Strong,gone designer of Everest. "We figured out all the different types of things that would go into the vehicle and tried to find the optimal arrangement for the smallest possible size." Despite the various challenges, Strong said it was a good experience for him to work on it at the undergraduate level. "There's no class on Mars robotic design, and a lot of things that you learn in class are not directly related to this project,' he said. "This project is differ- ent than some of the other student proj- ects on campus. We're not about competition. The goal of our project is pure research It's a higher goal than a straight competition." Music sophomore Christina Reynolds chats on her cellular phone while driving. A hill Introduced in the state legislature proposes that one point be added to a driver's record if it is proven that cellular phone use contributed to a traffic violation. Combination of cell phone use, driving d 11 " U scrutinize( By Sarah Scott Ior the Daily drivers who chat on their cell phones while navigating through traffic are the target of a new bill in the state Legisla- ture aimed at reducing the number of people who combine commuting with conversing. The bill, introduced in February by House Majority Floor Bruce Patter- son, directs the Secretary of State to d one point to each traffic violation 1rthe citation indicates a cell phone contributed to the cause of the viola- tion. The law would also limit cell phone use while driving to hands-free devices, such as headsets. "I think the bill has merit, but I don't want to rush to judgment on it, said Patterson (R-Canton). Another element of the bill would require the Secretary of State to conduct a two-year study to determine how often t 11 phone use played a role in motor hicle accidents. But one representative has not shown overwhelming enthusiasm for the bill. "The question is knowing what we know, is it fair to single out cell phone users versus people who eat their lunch in the car? Where do you draw the line?" asked Rep. Judson Gilbert (R-Algonac), chairman of e House Transportation Commit- le, to which Patterson's bill has been referred. Michigan is one of 40 states consider- ing such regulations, according to the National Conference on State Legisla- I in bill tures. University students have noticed and responded to the trend. LSA junior Dennis Tom admits using his cell phone when he's driving can be distracting but said he finds it highly unlikely that a cell phone could be proven to cause an accident. "I was in a car that almost got into an accident when the driver was on a cell phone, but I think it's very hard to pin- point the accident on the phone," Tom said. But LSA junior Laurin Gracey said she disagrees. "I hate cell phones'" she said. "They just get in the way. My sister uses one when she drives all the time, and she's always swer ing and doesn't pay atten- tion to her dri ing Gracey said her sister was talking to her on the cell phone while driv- ing and got into an accident. "She swerved, hit some orange construc- tion barrels, and crashed," she said, attributing the ca e of the crash to the cehl phone. Gracey said she hopes the law passes and said she thinks it would be effective in himiting cell phone use on the road. tga cell phone is not worth pay-_ ing extra mitsurance' she said. LSA senir Brian O'Neill also agreed with the proposed legislation. "You can definitely tell when someone's on their phone that they're not paying as much attention to driving as they should be,' he said. - TheAs sociuted Press contributed to this report. Now accepting new entries* from campus organizations and groups to be listed in the Campus Information Guide of the 2001-2002 Student Directory the official directory of on and off campus University of Michigan students Deadline for new entries: July 6, 2001 Please contact Jennifer @ 764-0550 Or fax: 936-1054 *Please keep description of your group to a maximum of 3 lines.