Mystery Robot

[Kooldino]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060522-robots.html

If it's as legit as they claim, that's insane.

[Dr Mordrid]

Insane wouldn't begin to cover it.

[TransformX]

I've heard something about a geo radar being used to discover archeological sites under masses of land etc. Could be quite the same thing?

[Dr Mordrid]

You're probably thinking of SAR = Synthetic Aperture Radar;

Sandia Natl. Labs page: http://www.sandia.gov/RADAR/sar.html

SAR applications: http://www.sandia.gov/RADAR/sarapps.html

Recent studies have shown that SAR may provide a limited capability for imaging selected underground targets, such as utility lines, arms caches, bunkers, mines, etc. Depth of penetration varies with soil conditions (moisture content, conductivity, etc.) and target size, but individual measurements have shown the capability for detecting 55-gallon drums and power lines at depths of several meters. In dry sand, penetration depths of 10's of meters are possible.

NASA has used SAR on probes & Shuttle missions, where it was responsible for finding numerous buried archaeological sites in the Sahara as well as others in Cambodia and Central America.

Safsaf Oasis, Egypt image (Landsat left; Shuttle SAR right);



Full sized image (7.6mb TIF);

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/files/images/hi-res/p49668.tif

Impressive, yes?

[Marshmallowman]

I've heard something about a geo radar being used to discover archeological sites under masses of land etc. Could be quite the same thing?

I seem to recall something similar as well, the difference being it was hand operated..eg they walked the scan path, while it did seem to work to a reasonable depth(a couple of meters) it did no descriminate so well.

Though that doesn't compare to the depth that robot seems effective to.