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When Mars was closest to Earth not too long ago, many flocked to the Singapore Science Centre to catch a glimpse of the Red Planet using the Centre's facilities such as telescopes. However, the wet weather at that point of time disappointed many who wished to view Mars up close.
However, one can see the Red Planet with the naked eye, such as in this picture during the time when it was closes to Earth. Although it was only a small red dot, it can be easily spotted on a clear night sky.
However, some of us did not manage to see it due to the 'light pollution' of urban Singapore with so many artificial man-made lights around at night.
Also, there has been a load of news in the local press that talks about the latest developments by the Mars Rover mission. One of the more significant article is that a Singapore-based company, Friartuck, is actually involved in the mission! Read more about it below.
FriarTuck is a Singapore-based software company dedicated to developing and marketing turnkey software solutions and consulting services for scheduling of complex events. It was started in August 2001 by Dr. Martin Henz, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore's School of Computing, and Sevugan Alagappan, then an undergraduate student in NUS.
NASA needed a software to schedule scientists and engineers for the Mars Exploration Rovers mission. The rovers, Spirit and Opportunity successfully landed on Mars and are currently carrying out valuable research work. At any particular time, each of the two Nasa rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, has to be monitored by at least 22 scientists as they roam the dusty surface of the Red Planet.
Friartuck's software, FTStaffRosterer, created automated schedules for a team of 200 scientists, who filled filling 22 different operational roles. FTStaffRosterer took into account various factors such as when the scientists prefer to work, and their expertise. It also adhered to strict rules about their rest time so as to minimise fatigue. Since the whole mission is run on Mars time, which is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, the staff show up for their shifts 40 minutes later each day.
It is an extremely difficult to find an optimal schedule that works within all these constraints. However FTStaffRosterer provided an excellent means of easily managing the schedule, thus saving a lot of time for NASA.
It is remarkable to note that this scheduling software developed by Dr. Martin Henz and Sevugan Alagappan, was actually a university project. Also, as fellow Singaporeans, we are proud that people of our nation are involved in a small but significant way in Nasa's project. Well done!