Mars robots begin test campaign

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

Engineers have unveiled the latest prototypes for a European rover that is due to land on Mars in 2015.

BBC News has had exclusive access to the test vehicles which are being put through their paces by space company UK Astrium at its HQ in Stevenage.

The British team on this European Space Agency (Esa) project has nicknamed the prototypes Bruno and Bradley.

The six-wheeled robots are claimed to be the most robust and manoeuvrable planetary rovers to be built.

According to Chris Draper, Astrium's ExoMars rover vehicle industrial manager, they can go literally where no rover has gone before.

"Obviously, the American MER rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) that were put up by Nasa enjoyed an extreme amount of success. They were able to travel large distances, well beyond their planned lifetimes. But we're hoping that with our baby, we'll be able to go places that are actually much further."

EXOMARS MISSION CONCEPT Set to leave Earth in 2013; primary aim is to search for life Will launch on a heavy-lift rocket, such as the Ariane 5 Vented landing bags allow for a larger payload Rover will carry a 16.5kg 'Pasteur' instrument suite 30kg geophysics/environment static station also possible This would study the weather and listen for 'Marsquakes' Concept to cost Esa states more than first estimates UK Mars rover hopes face set-back Evolution rolls on for Mars rover

Each prototype has six-wheel steering, which means that they can turn all six wheels and crab sideways.

They also have what engineers describe as "wheel walking capability". This means that when the vehicles come across a particularly steep or slippery slope, they can anchor themselves with five of the wheels and inch each wheel forward one at a time, to crawl over an obstacle.

The prototypes have a unique intelligent navigation system which enables them to plot their own course.

Such is the distance between the planets, it can take 20 minutes for an instruction sent from Earth to arrive at Mars. The delay means instant commands to change direction are not possible and so a rover must have autonomy to make decisions if, for example, it is approaching a dangerous precipice.

And because the rover will make its own decisions, it can also cover more ground.

ExoMars' primary mission is to search for signs of past or present life.

To do that, it will make its way to locations thought most likely to support life and drill up to two metres into the ground. Sub-surface soil samples will be analysed by an onboard laboratory.

The rover will have the largest array of scientific instruments to be taken to Mars. So if it gets strong indications that organisms might be present, it will be able to subject samples to a wide range of tests to confirm initial readings.

But the executives at Astrium are concerned that after having done the groundwork in developing the vehicle systems (the chassis, locomotion and navigation systems), the company might actually lose the opportunity to build the final flight vehicle.

It's quite a tense period for us in Astrium and for the other companies involved in building ExoMars Dr Ralph Cordey, UK Astrium

The concern stems from the recent funding difficulties faced by the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC), the agency which supports astronomy and space science in the UK.

The company won its role on the mission as leader of vehicle development partly because of the funding the STFC put through Esa. But Astrium's science business development manager, Dr Ralph Cordey, said that given the recent squeeze on British astronomy and space resources, he was now unsure if that same level of funding would continue.

"It's quite a tense period for us in Astrium and for the other companies involved in building ExoMars; and for all the many, many scientists who will depend on this mission," he told BBC News.

"On the one hand, we are moving ahead with a great momentum, as you've seen. This is not a paper project - there is real engineering going on and we are on the verge of building the real hardware that will go on to the planet Mars.

The two prototypes were built by Swiss (Top) and Canadian (Bottom) partners

"But on the other hand, we do have a real problem. In order to complete the project, further funding needs to be made available and it won't be until November that we are sure that that is in place."

The cost of ExoMars has risen dramatically since European space ministers first approved the venture in 2005. Revised estimates to be agreed next month with industrial partners mean the price for ExoMars will nearly double from its original 650m-euro price tag.

If the UK wants to maintain its position on mission, it will have to boost its financial commitment to ExoMars or come to some other compensatory arrangement with Esa.

If the UK plays the wrong hand at the next space ministers' meeting in November, UK Astrium warns, the contract to build the flight vehicle could go to a space company sited in another Esa member state.

The STFC said: "The UK will be working with its international partners to try to bring about a mission that has high impact and is affordable, in a process of negotiation that will culminate in decisions at the ministerial in November 2008.

"Meanwhile, it remains a high strategic priority for the UK as emphasised previously."

Electric bikes provide greener commute

NEW YORK (AP) -- When Honora Wolfe and her husband moved to the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado, she wanted an environmentally friendly way to commute to her job as a bookshop owner in the city.

Ed Poor rides an eZee Quando II electric bike to work in New York City.

Wolfe, 60, found her solution about a month ago: an electric bicycle. It gets her to work quickly, is easy on her arthritis and is better for the environment than a car.

"I'm not out to win any races," she said. "I want to get a little fresh air and exercise, and cut my carbon footprint, and spend less money on gas. And where I live, I can ride my bike seven months out of the year."

The surging cost of gasoline and a desire for a greener commute are turning more people to electric bikes as an unconventional form of transportation. They function like a typical two-wheeler but with a battery-powered assist, and bike dealers, riders and experts say they are flying off the racks.

Official sales figures are hard to pin down, but the Gluskin-Townley Group, which does market research for the National Bicycle Dealers Association, estimates 10,000 electric bikes were sold in the U.S. in 2007, up from 6,000 in 2006.

Bert Cebular, who owns the electric bike and scooter dealership NYCeWheels in New York, said his sales are up about 50 percent so far this year over last. Amazon.com Inc. says sales of electric bikes surged more than 6,000 percent in July from a year earlier, in part because of its expanded offerings.

"The electric bikes are the next big thing," said Frank Jamerson, a former General Motors Corp. executive turned electric vehicle guru.

They're even more popular in Europe, where Sophie Nenner, who opened a Paris bike store in 2005, says motorists boxed in by traffic jams are looking for an alternative for short journeys that doesn't involve navigating overcrowded transport systems.

Industry associations estimate 89,000 electric bikes were sold in the Netherlands last year, while 60,000 power-assisted bikes were sold in Germany.

The principle behind electric bikes is akin to that behind hybrid cars: Combine the conventional technology -- in this case, old-fashioned pedaling -- with a battery-powered motor.

The net result is a vehicle that rides a bit like a scooter, with some legwork required. Most models have a motorcycle-like throttle that gives a boost while going up hills or accelerating from a stop. On some models, the motor kicks in automatically and adjusts its torque based on how hard the rider pedals.

Although regulations vary by state, federal law classifies electric bikes as bicycles, and no license or registration is required as long as they don't go faster than 20 mph and their power doesn't exceed 750 watts.

Price largely determines weight, quality and battery type. A few hundred dollars gets you an IZIP mountain bike from Amazon with a heavy lead-acid battery. For $1,400, you can buy a 250-watt folding bike powered by a more-powerful, longer-lasting nickel-metal hydride battery like those in a camera or a Toyota Prius. At the high end, $2,525 buys an extra-light 350-watt model sporting a lightweight lithium-ion battery similar to a laptop's. Most models can go at least 20 miles before plugging in to recharge.

Joe Conforti, a commercial film director from New York, uses a four-year-old model designed by former auto titan Lee Iacocca in the 1990s for running errands or getting to social occasions.

"It's really nice," said Conforti, who is eagerly looking to upgrade to a newer, more powerful ride. "If you've got a date, you go to meet friends -- you go out on a (conventional) bike, you're gonna sweat up. You go out in an electric bike, it's great it's terrific, you're not gonna sweat up and you ride home fine."

Bike dealers said the growing demand goes beyond just the uptick in gas prices, but also because of word of mouth. Cebular said business at his store and on his Web site has been booming.

"Fifty percent of that increase is probably because of gas prices, and the rest is that there's just more bikes out there," said Cebular, who has run his shop on Manhattan's Upper East Side for seven years.

Improved technology also has made electric bikes more popular, Cebular said.

"When I started, there was only one bike that had a nickel-metal hydride battery -- everything else was lead-acid and was 80 or 90 pounds," he said. "That's a huge improvement."

Jay Townley, a partner at Gluskin-Townley, said the latest electric bikes are sleeker, better looking and hide their often-clunky batteries better than ever. That goes a long way to attract baby boomers and other mainstream customers.

"The new designs that we've seen in the marketplace are going to inure to the benefit of the electric bike companies," he said.

Ultra Motor, an England-based electric bike and scooter company, is betting big that it can capitalize on what it seems as a growing market for attractive-looking two-wheelers designed specifically for U.S. commuters. The company on Tuesday unveiled its "A2B" model, a slick, low-riding electric bike.

Ultra Motor took a conventional bicycle and redesigned it with fatter wheels, a lower center of gravity and a thick shaft designed to hide the lithium-ion battery inside, U.S. Chief Executive Chris Deyo said. The result is a cross between a motorcycle and a mountain bike.

The company already has signed up 75 dealers nationwide to sell the $2,500 bike starting next month.

"A year ago, when you mentioned the word electric bike, people looked at you and they really weren't sure what it was," Deyo said. "Today, what we're finding is we're actually having dealers call us seeking an electric bike to meet the demand."

Jamerson, the former GM executive who has become a staunch advocate for electric transportation, believes this is only the beginning for electric bikes. He retired from GM in 1993 after helping develop the company's EV1 electric car, and he's been an avid follower of alternative transportation ever since.

The EV1 project, though widely seen as a spectacular failure, helped convince Jamerson of the value of electric transportation. Given soaring fuel prices and thinning patience with foreign dependence on oil, Americans are ready to embrace electric vehicles, he said.

"Did you know there are 70 million electric bikes on the road today in China, and they are selling at the rate of 2.6 million electric bikes a year?" he said. "The public at large needs to understand that it is the right thing to do to move to electric transportation, and electric bikes and electric scooters will allow you to do that, to get that familiarity."

As for Wolfe, she could not be happier with her bike, a 48-pound mountain bike with a lithium-ion-powered assist made by California-based IZIP. A self-described "tree-hugger for decades," she drives her Honda Insight hybrid car or rides the bus when she's not using her bike to get to work.

It's part of her own personal campaign to reduce her carbon footprint. She also powers her home with help from a set of rooftop solar panels, and a geothermal furnace heats and cools it.

The furnace, she adds, even heats her water. Just one more way to reduce emissions, she said.

"Even my 92-year-old mother has a Prius," she said. "So I come by my green credentials genetically."