Planning for the Unknown: Data Collection & Synthesis from Mars
Posted by Jeffrey Henning on Thu, Oct 14, 2010
In the most unusual keynote at a market research conference ever, Scott Lever, a mission manager of the Mars Exploration Rover Project, discussed the findings from the Spirit and Opportunity rovers at the 35th Annual Conference of CASRO. Key facts about the mission:
- Originally intended to each roam Mars for 90 Martian days (called sols), the rovers in fact traveled over Mars for almost 2000 sols (in the case of Spirit, now stranded in a sand pit and hibernating) and almost 2500 sols (for Opportunity, which is still mobile).
- Every piece of hardware on the rovers has outlasted its specifications, even though some hardware is now damaged or worn down.
- Among the scientific evidence gathered by the rovers are rocks that indicate the prior presence of water on Mars, sufficient data to create the first stratigraphy of a geographical feature on another planet, the first temperature profile of the Martian atmosphere, and video footage of eclipses by the Martian moons.
Scott shared the following animation of the Mars rover launch and landing:
Scott also shared 3D photographs of Martian rocks, significantly raising the bar on creating immersive research presentations! Tom Webster of Edison Research captured the moment from the podium:
Are market researchers peering into the 3D future or have they stumbled out of a 1950s drive-in movie?!
One attendee summed up the market research implications from the Mars rover mission in three key points:
- “Simulate before proceeding to resolve problems before they occur.” Due to the huge expense of the two rovers (the initial mission was $820 million), JPL simulates risky activities on earth first, using simulation software as well as working models of the rovers in different terrain. [Market researchers should build simulations for conducting certain types of pricing research as well as for forecasting the success of new product launches.]
- “Don’t forge ahead until you know where are you and what is ahead.” The routes for the rovers are carefully mapped out in advance using photographs of the surrounding terrain, and travel only during the Martian day. [Good research projects start out with good goals.]
- “Collect and analyze data in all different ways.” Scott showed a wide assortment of images, graphs and charts, including composite photographs created from many different images, with false color to highlight important features. [Market researchers often get caught up using their favorite research techniques, rather than triangulating the results from multiple techniques.]
The Mars rover mission team has stretched technologies to uses for which they were not originally intended, answered questions outside the project scope and provided ongoing research support to a wider community. The JPL team would make “out of this world” market researchers!
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