Those inputs were transmitted via wired signals to a large rack of high-performance computers near the raised platform. From there, they ran through a landline to NASA’s White Sands ground station in Las Cruces, New Mexico. At that location, it was uploaded to the Monitoring and Information Communication System (MICS) satellite network until it reached a high-speed communications relay at the Earth-Moon L2 point. That relay blasted a tightbeam signal at Venus.
There, it was received in synchronous orbit by a small communications satellite placed there by the ILIAD probe and sent to the ground, where it was broadcast to the ground and the ACHILLES robots. Inside, in the main computer system, the commands inputted by the user were mirrored by the robot’s internal control systems.
Since Venus was nearing its closest approach to the Earth the total delay time was a little under two minutes. The computer system that powered the virtual reality environment was able to smooth that delay out to just a second or two through filtering and predictive processing. It calculated two to three dozen possible next frames for the user, so when the VR gear sent a command, it was able to give a response before the signal bounced to Venus and back.
Parkowski found her VR headset and put it on to check the fit. When it was strapped over her eyes and ears, she was completely immersed in the Venusian environment. Now, however, it was completely black.
She wondered what Marx was doing. There was a limitation right now that only one user could be active at one time, switching between control of the two robots. The system had been baselined for two active users, but bandwidth limitations had prevented that from occurring. Software engineers were furiously working on a fix, but none had come in yet from the developer.
Taking her helmet off, Parkowski looked around for her mentor and found his bald head in the row of cubicles.
As she walked to Pham, she looked up at the screen. Marx’s robot walked in a large, barren wasteland with yellow-brown boulders strewn around it.
Parkowski originally had wondered why they had engineers control the robots, rather than the researchers, until she had gotten into the VR gear and linked into a simulated environment. The robots themselves were complex, almost to a ridiculous extent, and the UI in the VR environment displayed an overwhelming amount of information on the screen regarding battery power, control actuators, communications links, and the like. There was no way a postdoc in geology or climate sciences would be able to control the robot and get his or her research done at the same time.
She found Pham hunched over a computer screen. “What’s up?”
He smiled at her. “Give me a sec and I’ll pull everything up.”
“No problem.”
He clicked a few icons on the screen, bringing up a PowerPoint presentation and a piece of mission planning software that Parkowski had some rudimentary knowledge of onto the workstation’s two monitors. “You’re controlling both robots for four and a half hours today,” Pham said. He motioned for her to lean over his shoulder in order to see better. “Let’s go through the mission overview first, then plan your waypoints in the mission planning software and make sure you’re ready to go.”
She stepped behind him and peered over his hunched form. He started the presentation. “Do you want to go through it line-by-line or just skim it?”
“Line by line,” Parkowski replied. “Let’s make sure I know every single detail.”
“Copy,” Pham said, clicking through the initial slides. “You are going to take control of ACHILLES 1 and ACHILLES 2 and a box of their equipment from Mr. Marx at point Alpha, which is located deep within the region of Ishtar Terra, a highland area near the planet’s north pole. Alpha is roughly a thousand kilometers east of the Sacajawea volcano, and about ten kilometers from the ILIAD probe’s landing site.”
“Roger,” Parkowski said as she squinted at the screen. Her eyes hurt, probably from the intense incandescent light pumped into the windowless high bay. “What’s the lag looking like?”
“Total delay is predicted to be one minute and fifty-five seconds,” Pham explained, “actual is one minute and fifty-eight seconds. The computer has been able to smooth that out to a perceived delay of point-five seconds.”
“Got it,” she said. The math could be a little fuzzy to her at times, but as a big-picture concept, it made sense.
“From there, you will take the two probes and the equipment they carry to point Bravo, located twenty kilometers to the northeast. There is a cave system there that the scientists want to map via ground-penetrating radar.”
“What’s the mass of the equipment?”
“Ten kilograms,” Pham replied as he switched to the next chart in the deck, “One of the ACHILLES robots should be able to carry it easily, especially with the slightly lower gravity on Venus.”
She nodded. “Got it.”
“Once there, you are going to set up the gear and perform a number of radar collects on the cave system,” Pham continued. “There will be a radar technician from Rayleigh, the manufacturer, on the net with you to work through the steps needed.”
“Okay, that sounds easy enough,” Parkowski said. “What next?”
“Then, the robots are going to split up for a bit,” Pham explained. “ACHILLES 1 will head back to the landing site and hook up to the recharging station at Waypoint Hotel. It has a big day planned for tomorrow and needs all of the power it can get. Then, you’ll switch to ACHILLES 2 and take the radar gear to another waypoint, Charlie, located ninety kilometers from Bravo. You will leave it there for the next operator to pick up.”
“Copy,” Parkowski said as she stretched her arms over her head. “And all of this is going to take four and a half hours?”
Pham nodded. “That’s with about twenty minutes of contingency time, but this is going to take a while. We’ve had comm issues with the gateway, so you may lose connection a few times. Marx had a lot of trouble in his first ten minutes in control, but the stability got better the more he used the system. The distance between the three points isn’t particularly close, and trust me, there’s not much to see on the planet. I’d recommend drinking some caffeine, but not too much, as you’re not going to get much in the way of bio breaks while you’re on the sticks.”
“Ok, ok,” she replied to the long-winded explanation. “I think I’m good. No further questions.”
Next, Pham showed Parkowski how to input her planned path into the mission planning software. It was cumbersome to use, with an antiquated interface that reminded her of some of the old video games from the nineties that her dad played on his laptop. Parkowski had once complained to one of the Aering in-house software engineers, who had shrugged. “It was bid out,” the man had told her, “and we always pick the lowest bidder with a government contract. I don’t think ease of use was very high on the list of selection criteria.”
After thirty minutes of using the awkward software, Parkowski was done. The computer took a little bit of time to compute the expected parameters for both of the ACHILLES robots, as well as the communications bandwidth and pathway for the entire mission. “Am I good to go?” she finally asked.
“Yes, you are.” He closed out of the software and they walked to the raised platform. Pham helped her put her gear back on and started hooking the cables up to it. Parkowski tried to count them, but lost track after ten.
A pair of technicians swooped in to help Dr. Pham as he struggled to plug one of them in. “Let me help you, doc,” one of them said, taking the cable out of Pham's small hands.
“Fine, fine,” Pham said with a smile. He took a step back, still holding Parkowski’s VR helmet in his hands. “Remember, when we first hook you up, you’re in view mode only. Marx’s gear is still in control.”