ZIGBEE Radios Landed on Mars
Recently one of the biggest achievements this year is achieved through Zigbee.
Today, we got to know the Ingenuity drone Helicopter whirling about on Mars. Ingenuity interacts with the Perseverance rover by using 900MHz Zigbee radios. It doesn’t use GSM, Wi-Fi, or something peregrines such as fission-powered lasers or space algae. It uses the same technology you utilize to put on a Philips Hue lightbulb.
We get this news via an unbelievable tweet from Ben Bromley. And Bromley found it on the Linux Unplugged podcast with guest Tobin Richardson, CEO of the Zigbee Alliance.
As per the tweet, Zigbee is the ideal protocol (wireless) to send telemetry data between the Perseverance rover of NASA. And also to the semi-autonomous flying drone. Richardson said, “Looking at extreme environments, like Mars, it’s nice to have a very slushy purpose-built standard.” “and it’s necessary to get the fundamental information across and makes it possible for extended battery usage.”
Ingenuity is the small helicopter that includes the Perseverance rover that has landed on the red planet. A copter that under the name of Ingenuity overcome the scant Martian gravity to take off. Afterward, utilized Zigbee to be capable of being controlled remotely.
Technology Used in Light Bulbs
Ingenuity flies over Martian land and does not require Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or something exotic to interact with Perseverance. To transmit all the essential instructions, theingenuity uses Zigbee in the 900 MHz range.
Zigbee is the technology you used to open up your garage doors. It is the protocol being used at smart homes to activate a Philips Hue bulb. Zigbee is able to transmit data without errors with minimal energy consumption.
What is the reason behind using this protocol? Richardson has confirmed that Zigbee has been preferred due to its ideal wireless protocol.
On Mars, there are not several outlets to switch to in the occurrence of a possible power failure. That is why it serves similar between the garage remote and the door, a light bulb, and a hub.
According to the Zigbee Alliance, the preferred Zigbee protocol provides a great reach. So, in a light atmosphere (Martian), it can go beyond the line of sight.
Therefore, it seems that the Zigbee protocol has to say something more,and it can give a lot of information. And when on Earth, people already want to replace Zigbee, on Mars, it is becoming the king.
What Makes Zigbee The Best for Communication?
A question arises, what makes Zigbee ideal for smart homes and makes it suitable for missions to other Planets. The Zigbee wireless protocol illustrated “low energy” way before Bluetooth adopted the LE features. That makes it great for the trivial data requirements of small, battery-operated smart home devices. It makes Zigbee suitable for temperature and motion sensors and also for slushy drones. Zigbee is very robust, designed to function in a mesh of nodes. This robustness may overcome packet delivery failures without affecting neighboring signals.
This protocol has plenty of range. For homes, the Zigbee Alliance boasts its signal can transmit about 150 feet. But that can be exerted much farther with line-of-sight. And perhaps farther even in the very thin atmosphere of Mars, which deficits the dense radio interference seen on Earth. NASA says the Ingenuity copter is efficient in interacting with the Mars’ Helicopter Base Station on the Perseverance rover about 2,700 feet.
Hello There! I am Elisa Wilson, and you are welcome on this website! I work as a digital content writer for a tech startup company based in Los Angeles. I also post my work online as well, and my content varies across disparate niches. I try to use my working experience in my writing works, and I try to inform as many people as I can in a language that is not only informative but also user-convenient. You can use this link: YouTube.com/activate to check out a website dedicated to YouTube.
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