On a 6m Diameter Curved Screen Spanning Horizontally and Vertically. from an Audience of 13 Operations and Experiments

about 30 viewers, a driver is selected to direct the robot's path and the pan and tilt of the panospheric imagery. Other audience members choose what technical information is overlaid on the display. In addition, imagery and robot status are available in real time on the Internet. The Science Center also features kiosks that describe the Trek, various technologies utilized by the robot, the science performed during the Trek, and information about the Atacama Desert and Chile. Although the primary objective is to traverse 200km under transcontinental control, the Atacama Desert Trek pursues complementary operational, technical, scientific and outreach goals. These are profiled in Table 2. The purpose of the Atacama Desert Trek is to demonstrate capabilities for high-performance planetary exploration by mobile robots. Breakthrough technologies relevant to locomotion, panospheric and immersive visualization, high data rate communications, position estimation, safeguarded teleoperation and autonomous driving, and remote geology are demonstrated. Beyond technical objectives, the Atacama Desert Trek sets a new standard for operational and public outreach for robotic exploration experience.