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NASA NTRS2002

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 brought advances on many fronts in support of NASA's new vision, announced by Administrator Sean O Keefe on April 12, "to improve life here, to extend life to there, to find life beyond." NASA successfully carried out four Space Shuttle missions, including three to the International Space Station (ISS) and one servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). By the end of the fiscal year, humans had occupied the ISS continuously for 2 years. NASA also managed five expendable launch vehicle (ELV) missions and participated in eight international cooperative ELV launches. In the area of space science, two of the Great Observatories, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, continued to make spectacular observations. The Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey carried out their mapping missions of the red planet in unprecedented detail. Among other achievements, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft made the first soft landing on an asteroid, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) monitored a variety of solar activity, including the largest sunspot observed in 10 years. The education and public outreach program stemming from NASA's space science missions continues to grow. In the area of Earth science, attention focused on completing the first Earth Observing Satellite series. Four spacecraft were successfully launched. The goal is to understand our home planet as a system, as well as how the global environment responds to change. In aerospace technology, NASA conducted studies to improve aviation safety and environmental friendliness, progressed with its Space Launch Initiative Program, and explored a variety of pioneering technologies, including nanotechnology, for their application to aeronautics and aerospace. NASA remained broadly engaged in the international arena and concluded over 60 international cooperative and reimbursable international agreements during FY 2002.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2005

Styles and Timing of Volatile-driven Activity in the Eastern Hellas Region of Mars

Hellas basin, the largest well-preserved impact structure on the Martian surface, is Mars deepest depositional sink and has long been recognized as a source for global dust storms. The basin and surrounding highlands span a wide range in latitude and elevation, exhibit landforms shaped by a diversity of geologic processes, and preserve exposures of Noachian, Hesperian, and Amazonian units. Geologically contemporaneous volcanism and volatile-driven activity in the circum-Hellas highlands provide resources for potential Martian life. Hellas is a geologically significant region for evaluating volatile abundance, distribution and cycling and changes in surface conditions on Mars. Current work integrates geologic studies of the basin floor and east rim using Viking Orbiter, Mars Global Surveyor, and Mars Odyssey datasets to provide a synthesis of the history of volatiles in the region.

Crown, David A.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Tracking Retreat of the North Seasonal Ice Cap on Mars: Results from the THEMIS Investigation

The CO2 ice caps on Mars advance and retreat with the seasons. This phenomenon was first observed by Cassini and then confirmed by numerous ground based observations in 19th and 20th centuries. With the advent of the space age observations of the seasonal ice cap were done by all orbiting spacecraft starting with Mariner 7. Viking Orbiters and more recently the Mars Global Surveyor (particularly Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) and Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) instruments) have accumulated significant data on the retreat of the CO2 seasonal cap. During Mars year 2 of THEMIS operations at Mars, we planned an observational campaign in which the THEMIS instrument (onboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft) repeatedly observed the north seasonal polar cap from midwinter to late spring. THEMIS allows simultaneous observations in both Thermal IR (12.57 m) and Visible wavelengths (0.65 m). One of the goals for this work is to initiate an interannual program for observations of the seasonal ice caps using the THEMIS instrument. The most efficient way to detect the edge between frost and bare ground is directly onboard of the spacecraft. Prior to onboard software design effort, we have developed two groundbased algorithms for automatically finding the edge of the seasonal polar cap in THEMIS IR data. The first algorithm relies on fully calibrated data and can be used for highly reliable groundbased analyses. The second method was specifically developed for processing raw, uncalibrated data in a highly efficient way. It has the potential to enable automatic, onboard detections of the seasonal cap retreat. We have experimentally confirmed that both methods produce similar results, and we have validated both methods against a model constructed from the MGS TES data from the same season.

Ivanov, A. B.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Comparing Goldstone Solar System Radar Earth-based Observations of Mars with Orbital Datasets

The Goldstone Solar System Radar (GSSR) has collected a self-consistent set of delay-Doppler near-nadir radar echo data from Mars since 1988. Prior to the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) global topography for Mars, these radar data provided local elevation information, along with radar scattering information with global coverage. Two kinds of GSSR Mars delay-Doppler data exist: low 5 km x 150 km resolution and, more recently, high (5 to 10 km) spatial resolution. Radar data, and non-imaging delay-Doppler data in particular, requires significant data processing to extract elevation, reflectivity and roughness of the reflecting surface. Interpretation of these parameters, while limited by the complexities of electromagnetic scattering, provide information directly relevant to geophysical and geomorphic analyses of Mars. In this presentation we want to demonstrate how to compare GSSR delay-Doppler data to other Mars datasets, including some idiosyncracies of the radar data. Additional information is included in the original extended abstract.

Haldemann, A. F. C.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Northern Hemisphere Gullies on Mars: Analysis of Spacecraft Data and Implications for Formation Mechanisms

The origin of geologically recent gullies on Mars has remained controversial since the discovery of these features by Malin and Edgett in 2000. Numerous models have been proposed which invoke various physical processes as well as various agents of erosion to explain the origin of the Martian gullies. Hypotheses to explain the formation of the gullies invoke shallow liquid water aquifers, deep liquid water aquifers, melting ground ice, snowmelt, dry landslides, and carbon dioxide aquifers. We test the validity of such gully formation mechanisms by analyzing data from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey spacecrafts to uncover trends in the dimensional and physical properties of the gullies and their surrounding terrain. A similar study has previously been completed for gullies located in the southern hemisphere of Mars. The work presented here focuses exclusively on gullies in the northern hemisphere based on the identification of 136 Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images containing clear evidence of gully landforms, distributed in the northern mid and high latitudes. These sites have been analyzed in combination with Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES), and Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) data to provide quantitative measurements of numerous gully characteristics. Parameters measured include apparent source depth and distribution, vertical and horizontal dimensions, slopes, compass orientations, near-surface ice content, and factors controlling present-day climatic conditions.

Heldmann, J. L.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Refining Martian Ages and Understanding Geological Processes From Cratering Statistics

Senior Scientist William K. Hartman presents his final report on Mars Data Analysis Program grant number NAG5-12217: The third year of the three-year program was recently completed in mid-2005. The program has been extremely productive in research and data analysis regarding Mars, especially using Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey imagery. In the 2005 alone, three papers have already been published, to which this work contributed.1) Hartmann, W. K. 200.5. Martian cratering 8. Isochron refinement and the history of Martian geologic activity Icarus 174, 294-320. This paper is a summary of my entire program of establishing Martian chronology through counts of Martian impact craters. 2) Arfstrom, John, and W. K. Hartmann 2005. Martian flow features, moraine-like rieges, and gullies: Terrestrial analogs and interrelationships. Icarus 174,32 1-335. This paper makes pioneering connections between Martian glacier-like features and terrestrial glacial features. 3) Hartmann, W.K., D. Winterhalter, and J. Geiss. 2005 Chronology and Physical Evolution of Planet Mars. In The Solar System and Beyond: Ten Years of ISSI (Bern: International Space Science Institute). This is a summary of work conducted at the International Space Science Institute with an international team, emphasizing our publication of a conference volume about Mars, edited by Hartmann and published in 2001.

Hartmann, William K.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Planetary Protection Issues in the Human Exploration of Mars

This workshop report, long delayed, is the first 21st century contribution to what will likely be a series of reports examining the effects of human exploration on the overall scientific study of Mars. The considerations of human-associated microbial contamination were last studied in a 1990 workshop ("Planetary Protection Issues and Future Mars Missions," NASA CP-10086, 1991), but the timing of that workshop allowed neither a careful examination of the full range of issues, nor an appreciation for the Mars that has been revealed by the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder missions. Future workshops will also have the advantage of Mars Odyssey, the Mars Exploration Rover missions, and ESA's Mars Express, but the Pingree Park workshop reported here had both the NCR's (1992) concern that "Missions carrying humans to Mars will contaminate the planet" and over a decade of careful study of human exploration objectives to guide them and to reconcile. A daunting challenge, and one that is not going to be simple (as the working title of this meeting, "When Ecologies Collide?" might suggest), it is clear that the planetary protection issues will have to be addressed to enable human explorers to safely and competently extend out knowledge about Mars, and its potential as a home for life whether martian or human.

Criswell, Marvin E.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Olympus Mons Aureole Deposits: New Evidence for a Flank Failure Origin

The origin of the rough-textured aureoles that surround the immense Olympus Mons volcano on Mars is controversial. We present data from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey missions to demonstrate that at least two of the aureole lobes are derived from the volcano's flanks in large and probably catastrophic mass movement events, leaving behind headwalls that constitute the basal scarp. This evidence stems from the morphology and internal structure of aureole blocks, which exhibit remnants of volcanic flow units on their surfaces. Our claim is supported by plausible reconstructions of the prefailure flanks. Structural analogs to known flank failure events at Hawaiian volcanoes suggest that repeated cycles of flank growth and collapse at Olympus Mons allow generation of the observed aureoles from a protoedifice similar in size and shape to the present one.

McGovern, P. J.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President, Fiscal Year 2002 Activities

Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 brought advances on many fronts in support of NASAs new vision, announced by Administrator Sean OKeefe on April 12, to improve life here, to extend life to there, to find life beyond. NASA successfully carried out four Space Shuttle missions, including three to the International Space Station (ISS) and one servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). By the end of the fiscal year, humans had occupied the ISS continuously for 2 years. NASA also managed five expendable launch vehicle (ELV) missions and participated in eight international cooperative ELV launches. In the area of space science, two of the Great Observatories, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, continued to make spectacular observations. The Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey carried out their mapping missions of the red planet in unprecedented detail. Among other achievements, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft made the first soft landing on an asteroid, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) monitored a variety of solar activity, including the largest sunspot observed in 10 years. The education and public outreach program stemming from NASAs space science missions continues to grow. In the area of Earth science, attention focused on completing the first Earth Observing Satellite series. Four spacecraft were successfully launched. The goal is to understand our home planet as a system, as well as how the global environment responds to change.

Aeronautics↗

NASA NTRS2000

Mars 2001 Space Opportunities

This paper describes the status of the planned NASA Mars Surveyor Program 2001 orbiter and lander. If the lander is approved for launch, it will be sent to a safe landing site.

Science Objectives GRS THEMIS MARIE APEX MARDI MEC↗

NASA NTRS2001

Mars and Phobos DTM's for planning new missions

The global digital topography and elevation models of Mars produced by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) and of Mars derived from Viking Orbiter stereo imaging have many uses for geodesy, geophysics, morphology and cartography studies of these two planetary bodies.

Phobos DTM's new mission planning↗

NASA NTRS2006

Dust Devil Tracks and Wind Streaks in the North Polar Region of Mars: A Study of the 2007 Phoenix Mars Lander Sites

The 65-72 latitude band of the North Polar Region of Mars, where the 2007 Phoenix Mars Lander will land, was studied using satellite images from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera Narrow-Angle (MOC-NA) camera. Dust devil tracks (DDT) and wind streaks (WS) were observed and recorded as surface evidence for winds. No active dust devils (DDs) were observed. 162 MOC-NA images, 10.3% of total images, contained DDT/WS. Phoenix landing Region C (295-315W) had the highest concentration of images containing DDT/WS per number of available images (20.9%); Region D (130-150W) had the lowest (3.5%). DDT and WS direction were recorded for Phoenix landing regions A (110-130W), B (240-260W), and C to infer local wind direction. Region A showed dominant northwest-southeast DDT/WS, Region B showed dominant north-south, east-west and northeast-southwest DDT/WS, and region C showed dominant west/northwest - east/southeast DDT/ WS. Results indicate the 2007 Phoenix Lander has the highest probability of landing near DDT/WS in landing Region C. Based on DDT/WS linearity, we infer Phoenix would likely encounter directionally consistent background wind in any of the three regions.

Mars↗

NASA NTRS2006

Spacecraft Data and Relay Management using Delay Tolerant Networking

NASA's demonstration of the successful transmission of relay data through the orbiting Mars Odyssey, Mars Global Surveyor, and Mars Express by the Mars Exploration Rovers has shown not only the benefit of using a relay satellite for multiple landed assets in a deep space environment but also the benefit of international standards for such architecture. As NASA begins the quest defined in the Vision for Exploration with robotic and manned missions to the Moon, continues its study of Mars, and is joined in these endeavors by countries world-wide, landed assets transmitting data through relay satellites will be crucial for completing mission objectives. However, this method of delivery of data will result in increased complexity in routing and prioritization of data transmission as the number of missions increases. Also, there is currently no standard method among organizations conducting such missions to return these data sets to Earth given a complex environment. One possibility for establishing such a standard is for mission designers to deploy protocols which fall under the umbrella of Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN). These developing standards include the Bundle Protocol (BP) which provides a standard, secure, store and forward mechanism designed for high latency and asymmetric communication links and the Licklider Transmission Protocol (LTP) which is used to provide a reliable deep space link transmission service.

network congestion control algorithm↗

NASA NTRS2006

Mars Aerobraking Spacecraft State Estimation by Processing Inertial Measurement Unit Data

Aerobraking is an efficient technique for orbit adjustment of planetary spacecraft, such as Magellan (Venus), Mars Global Surveyor, and Mars Odyssey. Determination of the vehicle state during the aerobraking phase has conventionally been performed using only radiometric tracking data prior to and following the atmospheric drag pass. This approach is sufficiently accurate and timely to meet current mission operational requirements; however, it is expensive in terms of ground support and leads to delayed results because ofthe need for post-drag pass data. This research presents a new approach to estimation of the vehicle state during the atmospheric pass that sequentially incorporates observations from an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and models of the vehicle and environment. The approach, called Inertial Measurements for Aerobraking Navigation (IMAN), is shown to perform at a level comparable to the conventional methods in terms of navigation accuracy and superior to them in terms of availability of the results immediately after completion ofthe pass. Furthermore, the research shows that IMAN can be used to reliably predict subsequent periapsis times and locations over all aerobraking regimes. IMAN also yields accurate peak dynamic pressure and heating rates, critical for a successful corridor control strategy, comparable to navigation team reconstructed values. This research also provides the first instance of the utilization of the Unscented Kalman Filter for the purpose of estimating an actual spacecraft trajectory arc about another planet.

Unscented Kalman Filter↗

NASA NTRS2008

Mars Image Collection Mosaic Builder

A computer program assembles images from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Observer Camera Narrow Angle (MOCNA) collection to generate a uniform-high-resolution, georeferenced, uncontrolled mosaic image of the Martian surface. At the time of reporting the information for this article, the mosaic covered 7 percent of the Martian surface and contained data from more than 50,000 source images acquired under various light conditions at various resolutions.

Plesea, Lucian↗

NASA NTRS2008

Providing Internet Access to High-Resolution Mars Images

The OnMars server is a computer program that provides Internet access to high-resolution Mars images, maps, and elevation data, all suitable for use in geographical information system (GIS) software for generating images, maps, and computational models of Mars. The OnMars server is an implementation of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS) server. Unlike other Mars Internet map servers that provide Martian data using an Earth coordinate system, the OnMars WMS server supports encoding of data in Mars-specific coordinate systems. The OnMars server offers access to most of the available high-resolution Martian image and elevation data, including an 8-meter-per-pixel uncontrolled mosaic of most of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Observer Camera Narrow Angle (MOCNA) image collection, which is not available elsewhere. This server can generate image and map files in the tagged image file format (TIFF), Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), 8- or 16-bit Portable Network Graphics (PNG), or Keyhole Markup Language (KML) format. Image control is provided by use of the OGC Style Layer Descriptor (SLD) protocol. The OnMars server also implements tiled WMS protocol and super-overlay KML for high-performance client application programs.

Plesea, Lucian↗

NASA NTRS2007

Automatic Command Sequence Generation

Automatic Sequence Generator (Autogen) Version 3.0 software automatically generates command sequences for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and several other JPL spacecraft operated by the multi-mission support team. Autogen uses standard JPL sequencing tools like APGEN, ASP, SEQGEN, and the DOM database to automate the generation of uplink command products, Spacecraft Command Message Format (SCMF) files, and the corresponding ground command products, DSN Keywords Files (DKF). Autogen supports all the major multi-mission mission phases including the cruise, aerobraking, mapping/science, and relay mission phases. Autogen is a Perl script, which functions within the mission operations UNIX environment. It consists of two parts: a set of model files and the autogen Perl script. Autogen encodes the behaviors of the system into a model and encodes algorithms for context sensitive customizations of the modeled behaviors. The model includes knowledge of different mission phases and how the resultant command products must differ for these phases. The executable software portion of Autogen, automates the setup and use of APGEN for constructing a spacecraft activity sequence file (SASF). The setup includes file retrieval through the DOM (Distributed Object Manager), an object database used to store project files. This step retrieves all the needed input files for generating the command products. Depending on the mission phase, Autogen also uses the ASP (Automated Sequence Processor) and SEQGEN to generate the command product sent to the spacecraft. Autogen also provides the means for customizing sequences through the use of configuration files. By automating the majority of the sequencing generation process, Autogen eliminates many sequence generation errors commonly introduced by manually constructing spacecraft command sequences. Through the layering of commands into the sequence by a series of scheduling algorithms, users are able to rapidly and reliably construct the desired uplink command products. With the aid of Autogen, sequences may be produced in a matter of hours instead of weeks, with a significant reduction in the number of people on the sequence team. As a result, the uplink product generation process is significantly streamlined and mission risk is significantly reduced. Autogen is used for operations of MRO, Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), Mars Exploration Rover (MER), Mars Odyssey, and will be used for operations of Phoenix. Autogen Version 3.0 is the operational version of Autogen including the MRO adaptation for the cruise mission phase, and was also used for development of the aerobraking and mapping mission phases for MRO.

Fisher, Forest↗

NASA NTRS2011

Performance of the GLAS Space Lidar Receiver Through Its Seven-Year Space Mission

NASA s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) mission [1,2] carrying the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) Instrument, was launched on January 12, 2003. The three lasers on ICESat have made a total of 1.98 billion laser shot measurements of the Earth s surface and atmosphere during its 17 science data collection campaigns over its seven year operating lifetime. ICESat completed its science mission after the last laser stopped operating in October 2009. The spacecraft was de-orbited on August 30, 2010. The GLAS instrument carried 3 diode-pumped Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers, which emitted 6-nsec wide pulses at 1064 and 532 nm at a 40-Hz rate. There are three lidar receiver channels, a 1064 nm surface altimetry channel, a 1064 nm cloud backscattering lidar channel, and a 532 nm cloud and aerosol backscattering lidar channel. The altimetry and cloud backscatter channels used Si avalanche photodiode (APD) operated in analog mode as in the Mars Global Surveyor s Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter [3,4]. GLAS also utilized a number of new technologies and techniques for space lidar, including passively Q-switched diode-pumped Nd:YAG lasers, a 1-m diameter telescope, a temperature tuned etalon optical bandpass filter, Si APD single photon counting detectors, 1 Gsample/sec waveform digitizers, ultra stable clock oscillators, and digital signal processing and detection algorithms [5]. A global position system (GPS) receiver was used to provide the spacecraft position and epoch times. The ICESat mission provided a unique opportunity to monitor the lidar component performance in the space environment over a multi-year time period. We performed a number of engineering tests periodically to monitor the lidar receiver performance, including receiver sensitivity, timing precision, detector dark noise, etc. A series of engineering tests were also performed after the end of the science mission to evaluate the performance of the spare detector, oscillator, waveform digitizer, and GPS receiver. An experiment was conducted which pointed GLAS to Venus to test the receiver sensitivity to star light and to verify GLAS bore sight with respect to the spacecraft coordinate system. These tests provided unique data to assess the degradation and the rate of change of these key lidar components due to space radiation and aging. They also helped to validate new techniques to operate and calibrate future space lidars.

Sun, Xiaoli↗