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...This paper verviews the system design and the results of the system integration and test activities, including the entry, descent and landing subsystem elements. System test experiences including science instruments, the microrover, Sojourner, and software are discussed.
This volume, the first of two comprising the technical report for this workshop, contains papers that have been accepted for presentation at the Mars Pathfinder Landing Site Workshop 2: Characteristics of the Ares Vallis Region, September 24-30, 1995, in Spokane, Washington. The Mars Pathfinder Project received a new start in October 1993 as one of the next missions in NASA's long-term Mars exploration program. The mission involves landing a single vehicle on the surface of Mars in 1997. The project is one of the first Discovery-class missions and is required to be a quick, low-cost mission and achieve a set of significant but focused engineering, science, and technology objectives. The primary objective is to demonstrate a low-cost cruise, entry, descent, and landing system required to place a payload on the martian surface in a safe, operational configuration. Additional objectives include the deployment and operation of various science instruments and a microrover. Pathfinder paves the way for a cost-effective implementation of future Mars lander missions. Also included in this volume is the field trip guide to the Channeled Scabland and Missoula Lake Break-out. On July 4, 1997, Mars Pathfinder is scheduled to land near 19.5 deg N, 32.8 deg W, in a portion of Ares Vallis. The landing ellipse covers a huge (100 x 200 km) area that appears to include both depositional and erosional landforms created by one or more giant, catastrophic floods. One of the best known terrestrial analogs to martian outflow channels (such as Ares Vallis) is the region known as the Channeled Scabland. The field trip guide describes some of the geomorphological features of the Channeled Scabland and adjacent Lake Missoula break-out area near Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho.
Mars Pathfinder, launching in December 1996 and landing on Mars on July 4, 1997, will demonstrate a low-cost delivery system to the surface of Mars for follow-on landers. Objectives are the return of engineering data, panoramic images of the Martian surface, microrover experiments, etc. A technical mission description is included.
Discovery-class missions that are now planned, and those in the concept stage, have the potential to expand our knowledge of the origins and evolution of biogenic compounds, and ultimately, of the origins of life in the solar system. This class of missions, recently developed within NASA's Solar System Exploration Program, is designed to meet important scientific objectives within stringent guidelines--$150 million cap on development cost and a 3-year cap on the development schedule. The Discovery Program will effectively enable "faster, cheaper" missions to explore the inner solar system. The first two missions are Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) Pathfinder and Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR). MESUR Pathfinder will be the first Discovery mission, with launch planned for November/December 1996. It will be primarily a technical demonstration and validation of the MESUR Program--a network of automated landers to study the internal structure, meteorology, and surface properties of Mars. Besides providing engineering data, Pathfinder will carry atmospheric instrumentation and imaging capabilities, and may deploy a microrover equipped with an alpha proton X-ray spectrometer to determine elemental composition, particularly the lighter elements of exobiological interest. NEAR is expected to be launched in 1998 and to rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid for up to 1 year. During this time, the spacecraft will assess the asteroid's mass, size, density, map its surface topography and composition, determine its internal properties, and study its interaction with the interplanetary environment. A gamma ray or X-ray spectrometer will be used to determine elemental composition. An imaging spectrograph, with 0.35 to 2.5 micron spectral range, will be used to determine the asteroid's compositional disbribution. Of the 11 Discovery mission concepts that have been designated as warranting further study, several are promising in terms of determining the composition and chemical evolution of organic matter on small planetary bodies. The following mission concepts are of particular interest to the Exobiology Program: Cometary coma chemical composition, comet nucleus tour, near earth asteroid returned sample, small missions to asteroids and comets, and solar wind sample return. The following three Discovery mission concepts that have been targeted for further consideration are relevant to the study of the evolution of biogenic compounds: Comet nucleus penetrator, mainbelt asteroid rendezvous explorer, and the Mars polar Pathfinder.
The baseline small lander network mission MESUR (Mars Environmental Survey) is reviewed and the tasks that a microrover could do to improve the science return on such a mission are described. An early precursor small lander mission under study, called MESUR Pathfinder, and the science, technology, and mission engineering tasks that are being considered for the microrover are also described. A description of a microrover (instrumented with microsensors), which is applicable to a small Mars lander mission, is given.
A Microrover Flight Experiment (MFEX) based on a basic Rocky 4 design and conducted in the framework of the NASA Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) Pathfinder program is described. The MFEX rover design features six powered wheels attached by a set of 'bogie levers' to a single body. The rover is designed to perform technology, science, and mission experiments. Instruments on the rover mechanisms will determine wheel-soil interactions, detect hazards, and determine navigational errors. Science data will be gathered using an alpha-proton-X-ray spectrometer against one or more rocks, and possible soil. The pathfinder will also serve as an engineering test of a transport and landing system for the MESUR network mission and the rover will image the lander to assess its condition.
Mars Pathfinder successfully landed on the surface of Mars on July 4, 1997, and ushered in a new era in Mars exploration. This era will feature numberous low cost missions which will perform important science investigations and engage the world's population in the excitement of planetary exploration.
The Mars exploration program has as an overarching theme the search for and understanding of life, climate and resources on Mars. The ability to move about the surface of Mars is key to making measurements and the gathering of the data which address this theme.
The Mars Pathfinder mission illustrated the benefits of including a mobile robotic explorer on a planetary mission. However, for future Mars rover missions, significantly increased autonomy in navigation is required in order to meet demanding mission criteria. To address these requirements, we have developed new path planning and localisation capabilities that allow a rover to navigate robustly to a distant landmark. These algorithms have been implemented on the JPL Rocky 7 prototype microrover and have been tested extensively in the JPL MarsYard, as well as in natural terrain.