Installations using iQuest products are found in some pretty extreme locations. They range from the searing heat of the Australian Outback to the freezing cold, buried in snow high on New Zealand mountains. Dataloggers are monitoring a range of parameters out in the remote environment with data transferred by telemetry back to 'civilisation'.  However, a recent news item in the Los Angeles Times about the NASA Mars Exploration Rovers project puts the term 'extreme' into a whole new perspective! It makes for interesting reading for those with a passion for innovation and projects truly "outside the box"...

After six highly successful years of exploring the red sands of Mars, NASA's rover Spirit will rove no more.  With its six wheels stuck in powdery sand and two wheels no longer working at all, the resilient little explorer will become an immobile scientific observatory - if it can survive the harsh temperatures of the upcoming winter.  "Its driving days are likely over," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program.

If Spirit can be awakened after what could be a six-month hibernation, researchers will use it to attempt to answer one of their most pressing questions: whether the red planet has a solid iron core or a liquid one.  If the vehicle can't be revived, it will still have far surpassed scientists' original expectations and its design life of three months, traveling nearly 12 miles across the barren surface of Mars and finding strong evidence that water once altered the planet's terrain.  Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is still moving across the Martian surface farther north nearer the equator and on the other side of the planet, and continues to send back valuable data.  Opportunity has successfully weathered every Martian winter so far because "it is in a different thermal environment," McCuistion said, and the team that controls it doesn't expect any troubles for it this winter.

Spirit's problems began nine months ago when its wheels broke through the thin Martian crust and sank into powdery sand.  Breaking free proved difficult because one of the rover's six wheels had broken down three years earlier. A second wheel became immobilized during the extrication attempts, leaving the vehicle with three good wheels on its left side and only one on its right. So far, the efforts to free it have only dug the wheels in deeper.  About a week and a half ago, with winter approaching, the team shifted its emphasis from extricating the rover to positioning it so that its solar panels would receive more sunlight, rover driver Ashley Stroupe of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said at the news conference.  The rovers were designed and built at the La Cañada Flintridge laboratory, and engineers have been guiding them from that location.  The most likely scenario is that Spirit's power supply will get lower and lower and eventually it will shut down and go into hibernation mode until spring brings more sunshine.

The question is whether engineers will be able to revive it to use that sunshine.  NASA engineers expect temperatures around Spirit to fall into the minus 40s this winter. The craft was designed to operate in temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees and to survive temperatures as low as minus 67 degrees.  "But that is with a brand-new rover fresh out of the box," said John Callas, JPL's project manager for the rovers.  If Spirit does survive, researchers hope to get many more scientific results from it, said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, the project's principal investigator. By tracking Spirit's radio signal precisely over a long time -- perhaps six months or more -- the team will be able to monitor Mars' "wobble" in its orbit. That will allow scientists to determine whether the planet has a solid or liquid core.  "This is totally new science, really fundamental stuff" that can be achieved only with a stationary platform, he said.  By looking around the craft for a long period, he added, the team will also be able to monitor how the planet's atmosphere interacts with its surface.  And finally, by continuing to dig at the current site, the team will be able to characterize the soil much more thoroughly than has been achieved anywhere else on Mars.  "The bottom line is, we are not giving up on Spirit," Squyres said.

From the University's news center - "The goal of CitiSense is to build and deploy a wireless network in which hundreds or thousands of small environmental sensors carried by the public rely on cell phones to shuttle information to central computers where it will be analyzed, anonymized and reflected back out to individuals, public health agencies and San Diego at large. At the same time, the sensor-wearing public will have the option to also wear biological monitors that collect basic health information, such as heart rate. This combination of sensors will enable the team’s medical team to run exacting health science research projects, such as investigating how particular environmental pollutants affect human health."

They have won a (US)$1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to "solve the many technical challenges that stand in the way of applications that merge the cyber and physical worlds."

It will be interesting to follow this project as it proceeds, as it moves the telemetry of environmental data from the control of the collecting agency into the control of the general public.  There will also be a mountain of challenges to overcome in terms of the accuracy of the data, however they have some pretty smart brains working on it.

What do you think of their plan?  You can leave a comment below.

There are two interesting things at play here.  According to the article, instrumental climate recording began in 1850, so we are talking about only 160 years of observations; and the timing – this data has been released during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

It might just be me, but it seems no coincidence that an alarmist media release has occurred just before world leaders debate a new protocol to replace the Kyoto Protocol in a few years.  If they need a reason to be able to introduce radical measures, this data will be a fantastic help.

Whichever side of the global warming debate you sit on (very few people are on the fence!), you can’t deny that average global temperature is increasing and has been doing so for at least the last 50 years, there is ample evidence to show this.  But can we use data from only 160 years to make decisions that will affect the way each of us live our lives?

I’m certainly not saying that the conference in Copenhagen shouldn’t be happening, or that we shouldn’t all be doing our bit for the environment, just that we should treat every piece of information we receive – from both sides of the debate – with a healthy dose of skepticism and apply a little of our own intelligence and critical thinking before swallowing it up.

- Malcolm Barr

The successful launch of the Rocket Lab "Atea-1" rocket on November 30th was a great testimony to Kiwi innovation and perseverance. Right up to the last minute of the delayed take-off, the atmosphere of excitement and suspense was maintained for media and supporters as a few "technical-hitches" were sorted out.

Of special interest to us is the on-board avionics (control, data logger and satellite telemetry) system.  We know only too well that having to design and build gear that can endure severe acceleration, temperature and pressure changes pushes technology to the limit.  There is no room for failure once the launch sequence is initiated!  The other major factor in rocket design is an absolute focus on weight reduction.  Every unnecessary gram limits the maximum altitude achievable. This makes, for example the choice of battery paramount to maximise life against weight.

Working on a shoe string budget over several years, the small team pulled off what is an incredibly difficult feat for those who do not have access to the resources of big aerospace business or government.  Over the years, Rocket Labs has developed some cutting-edge technology that has generated interest from around the world.  Specialised ablative coatings and improved rocket fuels have been spin-offs.  However, their technology road map has a common goal of lowering cost and providing environmentally friendly solutions to give science and industry access to sub-orbital space.

Although the Rocket Lab team appear to be the ultimate "geeks" who are passionate about rocket science and things that go bang, they are commercially astute and very keen to promote NZ as a centre of innovation and excellence.  They have proved that with enough passion, enthusiasm and the right connections it is possible to achieve breakthrough and get the attention of the "big guys".

As another small NZ company involved in rapidly changing technology in a global environment, we salute Rocket Lab and look forward to following the progress of what is already a very unique and interesting company.

- Michael Cook

Leaving aside the flow meter equipment (we don’t supply or install them, so it isn’t up to us to comment), how do you know if the datalogger and telemetry solution you have chosen is going to meet your requirements long term?  Firstly, I would separate the question into two parts – the datalogger and the telemetry requirements.

Make sure the datalogger is a proven model.  Cheaper is definitely not going to be better in this case!  You want to make sure the datalogger is flexible enough to handle multiple inputs, and has the capacity to store large amounts of data in the unlikely event that your telemetry system fails for a period of time (maybe as a result of a mobile phone provider problem).  If you aren’t sure, maybe contact someone in the environmental monitoring team at your regional council.  They will have experience with a range of dataloggers.

For the telemetry requirements, check first of all that your provider will be able to get the data from the datalogger and to the council in the format they require, and as frequently as they require it.  They may also be able to offer you a service where you can view your data on the Internet.  The data will probably be transmitted from the logger over one of the mobile networks, so data charges are going to be important (this will be one of the few ongoing costs).  The total amount of data is relatively small, so check that you aren’t being charged for a standard Internet data package (500MB or more) as this is way too much.

Lastly, You should also check whether your telemetry provider will notice if your datalogger goes offline or there are any problems.  If data is being submitted daily, they should check daily that it has been submitted.  Your regional council won’t be happy if it takes a week or two of no data before anyone does anything about it.

- Malcolm Barr