Evolving Directions in NASA's Planetary Rover Requirements and Technology
This paper describes the evolution of NASA's planning for planetary rovers and some of the technology that has been developed to achieve the desired capabilities.
robotic↗
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Design Concept for a Nuclear Reactor-Powered Mars Rover
A report presents a design concept for an instrumented robotic vehicle (rover) to be used on a future mission of exploration of the planet Mars. The design incorporates a nuclear fission power system to provide long range, long life, and high power capabilities unachievable through the use of alternative solar or radioisotope power systems. The concept described in the report draws on previous rover designs developed for the 2009 Mars Science laboratory (MSL) mission to minimize the need for new technology developments.
Elliott, John↗
Robotics Verification and Validation Strategies for Perseverance Rover Sampling and Caching
The Mars 2020 Sampling and Caching Subsystem(SCS) is the most complex robotic system ever fielded on a MarsRover. It includes a 5 degree-of-freedom Robotic Arm, coringdrill, gas Dust Removal Tool, interfaces for two turret-mountedinstruments, and an Adaptive Caching Assembly (ACA). TheACA is itself a complex robotic system, containing hardware tosupport docking and bit exchange, a 3 degree-of-freedomSample Handling Assembly for manipulating sample tubes,storage for several drill bits and sample tubes, and mechanismsto support observing and sealing samples collected by the drill.To successfully verify and validate the SCS hardware andsoftware and its integration with the Mars 2020 flight systemseveral key strategies were employed.The SCS Verification and Validation (V&V) program utilizedmultiple test venues with tiered levels of fidelity. These includedsimulation and visualization software environments, low fidelitydevelopment testbeds, testbeds with high fidelity SCS hardwareand commercial off-the shelf avionics, integrated systemtestbeds with flight-like avionics, and environmental testbedscapable of simulating Martian surface temperature andpressure. Multiple units of each SCS hardware componentmoved fluidly between test venues to accomplish myriadstandalone and coordinated test objectives. Test preparationand executions were performed by a diverse team of engineerswith training and technical ownership tailored for individualexperience and role. Despite significant differences between testvenues, the SCS V&V team established efficient and consistentprocesses and tools for procedure development, test execution,and data review that enabled personnel, as well as technicalproducts such as sequences and parameter configurations, toflow between venues effectively. A series of benchmark testsprovided evidence of performance consistency as elements weretransferred between venues and as system capability evolved.This paper provides an overview of the SCS V&V program andexplores several overarching strategies that enabled successfuloperation in the face of unprecedented complexity. Keyoutcomes of the SCS validation effort are summarized, alongwith lessons learned and beneficial integrations of validationtool and process innovations into Mars surface operations.
Brooks, Sawyer↗
Short Range-Ordered Minerals: Insight into Aqueous Alteration Processes on Mars
Short range-ordered (SRO) aluminosilicates (e.g., allophane) and nanophase ferric oxides (npOx) are common SRO minerals derived during aqueous alteration of basaltic materials. NpOx refers to poorly crystalline or amorphous alteration products that can be any combination of superparamagnetic hematite and/or goethite, akaganeite, schwertmannite, ferrihydrite, iddingsite, and nanometer-sized ferric oxide particles that pigment palagonitic tephra. Nearly 30 years ago, SRO phases were suggested as alteration phases on Mars based on similar spectral properties for altered basaltic tephra on the slopes of Mauna Kea in Hawaii and Martian bright regions measured by Earth-based telescopes. Detailed characterization of altered basaltic tephra on Mauna Kea have identified a variety of alteration phases including allophane, npOx, hisingerite, jarosite, alunite, hematite, goethite, ferrihydrite, halloysite, kaolinite, smectite, and zeolites. The presence of npOx and other Fe-bearing minerals (jarosite, hematite, goethite) was confirmed by the M ssbauer Spectrometer onboard the Mars Exploration Rovers. Although the presence of allophane has not been definitely identified on Mars robotic missions, chemical analysis by the Spirit and Opportunity rovers and thermal infrared spectral orbital measurements suggest the presence of allophane or allophane-like phases on Mars. SRO phases form under a variety of environmental conditions on Earth ranging from cold and arid to warm and humid, including hydrothermal conditions. The formation of SRO aluminosilicates such as allophane (and crystalline halloysite) from basaltic material is controlled by several key factors including activity of water, extent of leaching, Si activity in solution, and available Al. Generally, a low leaching index (e.g., wet-dry cycles) and slightly acidic to alkaline conditions are necessary. NpOx generally form under aqueous oxidative weathering conditions, although thermal oxidative alteration may occasional be involved. The style of aqueous alteration (hydrolytic vs. acid sulfate) impacts which phases will form (e.g., oxides, oxysulfates, and oxyhydroxides). Knowledge on the formation processes of SRO phases in basaltic materials on Earth has allowed significant enhancement in our understanding of the aqueous processes at work on Mars. The 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will provide an instrument suite that should improve our understanding of the mineralogical and chemical compositions of SRO phases. CheMin is an X-ray diffraction instrument that may provide broad X-ray diffraction peaks for SRO phases; e.g., broad peaks around 0.33 and 0.23 nm for allophane. Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) heats samples and detects evolved gases of volatile-bearing phases including SRO phases (i.e., carbonates, sulfates, hydrated minerals). The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and ChemCam element analyzers will provide chemical characterization of samples. The identification of SRO phases in surface materials on MSL will be challenging due to their nanocrystalline properties; their detection and identification will require utilizing the MSL instrument suite in concert. Ultimately, sample return missions will be required to definitively identify and fully characterize SRO minerals with state-of-the-art laboratory instrumentation back on Earth.
Ming, Douglas W.↗
Robots on the Red Planet: The Past, Present, and Future of Mars Rover Autonomy
No abstract provided
Ono, Masahiro↗
Accuracy Analysis and Validation of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Robotic Arm
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity Rover is currently exploring the surface of Mars with a suite of tools and instruments mounted to the end of a five degree-of-freedom robotic arm. To verify and meet a set of end-to-end system level accuracy requirements, a detailed positioning uncertainty model of the arm was developed and exercised over the arm operational workspace. Error sources at each link in the arm kinematic chain were estimated and their effects propagated to the tool frames.A rigorous test and measurement program was developed and implemented to collect data to characterize and calibrate the kinematic and stiffness parameters of the arm. Numerous absolute and relative accuracy and repeatability requirements were validated with a combination of analysis and test data extrapolated to the Mars gravity and thermal environment. Initial results of arm accuracy and repeatability on Mars demonstrate the effectiveness of the modeling and test program as the rover continues to explore the foothills of Mount Sharp.
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Mars Rover Sample Return mission delivery and return challenges
The Mars Rover Sample Return mission is a robotic exploration mission culminating in the return of atmospheric and surface samples from Mars to Earth. To accomplish this complex mission requires sophisticated autonomous systems for many time-critical operations associated with the delivery and return phases, since the round trip light times preclude Earth-based control of these operations. In addition, there are significant engineering and technology challenges to be addressed to meet the mission science and exploration objectives.
Cohen, Aaron↗
NASA Mars 2020 Rover Mission: New Frontiers in Science
The Mars 2020 rover mission is the next step in NASAs robotic exploration of the red planet. The rover, based on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover now on Mars, will address key questions about the potential for life on Mars. The mission would also provide opportunities to gather knowledge and demonstrate technologies that address the challenges of future human expeditions to Mars.Like the Mars Science Laboratory rover, which has been exploring Mars since 2012, the Mars 2020 spacecraft will use a guided entry, descent, and landing system which includes a parachute, descent vehicle, and, during the provides the ability to land a very large, heavy rover on the surface of Mars in a more precise landing area. The Mars 2020 mission is designed to accomplish several high-priority planetary science goals and will be an important step toward meeting NASAs challenge to send humans to Mars in the 2030s. The mission will conduct geological assessments of the rover's landing site, determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient Martian life, and assess natural resources and hazards for future human explorers. The science instruments aboard the rover also will enable scientists to identify and select a collection of rock and soil samples that will be stored for potential return to Earth in the future. The rover also may help designers of a human expedition understand the hazards posed by Martian dust and demonstrate how to collect carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which could be a valuable resource for producing oxygen and rocket fuel.
Regolith electrostatics↗
Mars Exploration Rover thermal test program overview
In January 2004, two Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) landed on the surface of Mars to begin their mission as robotic geologists. A year prior to these historic landings, both rovers and the spacecraft that delivered them to Mars, were completing a series of environmental tests in facilities at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This paper describes the test program undertaken to validate the thermal design and verify the workmanship integrity of both rovers and the spacecraft. The spacecraft, which contained the rover within the aeroshell, were tested in a 7.5 m diameter thermal vacuum chamber. Thermal balance was performed for the near earth (hot case) condition and for the near Mars (cold case) condition. A solar simulator was used to provide the solar boundary condition on the solar array. IR lamps were used to simulate the solar heat load on the aeroshell for the off-sun attitudes experienced by the spacecraft during its cruise to Mars. Each rover was tested separately in a 3.0 m diameter thermal vacuum chamber over conditions simulating the warmest and coldest expected Mars diurnal temperature cycles. The environmental tests were conducted in a quiescent nitrogen atmosphere at a pressure of 8 to 10 Torr. In addition to thermal balance testing, the science instruments on board the rovers were tested successfully in the extreme environmental conditions anticipated for the mission. A solar simulator was not used in these tests.
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Precision Instrument Targeting via Image Registration for the Mars 2020 Rover
A key component of Mars exploration is the operation of robotic instruments on the surface, such as those on board the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), and the planned Mars 2020 Rover. As the instruments carried by these rovers have become more advanced, the area targeted by some instruments becomes smaller, revealing more fine-grained details about the geology and chemistry of rocks on the surface. However, thermal fluctuations, rover settling or slipping, and inherent inaccuracies in pointing mechanisms all lead to pointing error that is on the order of the target size (several millimeters) or larger. We show that given a target located on a previously acquired image, the rover can align this with a new image to visually locate the target and refine the current pointing. Due to round-trip communication constraints, this visual targeting must be done efficiently on board the rover using relatively limited computing hardware. We employ existing ORB features for landmark-based image registration, describe and theoretically justify a novel approach to filtering false landmark matches, and employ a random forest classifier to automatically reject failed alignments. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach using over 3,800 images acquired by Remote Micro-Imager on board the “Curiosity” rover.
Doran, Gary↗
A Prototype Manipulation System for Mars Rover Science Operations
This paper provides an overview of a new manipulation system developed for sampling and instrument placement from small autonomous mobile robots for Mars exploration. Selected out of the design space, two manipulators have been constructed and integrated into the Rocky 7 Mars rover prototype. This paper describes objectives and constraints for these manipulators, and presents the finished system and some results from its operation.
Mars Rover manipulation system sampling instrument↗
MER Field Geologic Traverse in Gusev Crater, Mars: Initial Results From the Perspective of Spirit
This report casts the initial results of the traverse and science investigations by the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit at Gusev crater [1] in terms of data sets commonly used in field geologic investigations: Local mapping of geologic features, analyses of selected samples, and their location within the local map, and the regional context of the field traverse in terms of the larger geologic and physiographic region. These elements of the field method are represented in the MER characterization of the Gusev traverse by perspective-based geologic/morphologic maps, the placement of the results from Mossbauer, APXS, Microscopic Imager, Mini-TES and Pancam multispectral studies in context within this geologic/ morphologic map, and the placement of the overall traverse in the context of narrow-angle MOC (Mars Orbiter Camera) and descent images. A major campaign over a significance fraction of the mission will be the first robotic traverse of the ejecta from a Martian impact crater along an approximate radial from the crater center. The Mars Exploration Rovers have been conceptually described as 'robotic field geologists', that is, a suite of instruments with mobility that enables far-field traverses to multiple sites located within a regional map/image base at which in situ analyses may be done. Initial results from MER, where the field geologic method has been used throughout the initial course of the investigation, confirm that this field geologic model is applicable for remote planetary surface exploration. The field geologic method makes use of near-field geologic characteristics ('outcrops') to develop an understanding of the larger geologic context through continuous loop of rational steps focused on real-time hypothesis identification and testing. This poster equates 'outcrops' with the locations of in situ investigations and 'regional context' with the geology over distance of several kilometers. Using this fundamental field geologic method, we have identified the basic local geologic materials on the floor of Gusev at this site, their compositions and likely lithologies, origins, processes that have modified these materials, and their potential significance in the interpretation of the regional geology both spatially and temporally.
Crumpler, L.↗
Applications for Mission Operations Using Multi-agent Model-based Instructional Systems with Virtual Environments
This viewgraph presentation provides an overview of past and possible future applications for artifical intelligence (AI) in astronaut instruction and training. AI systems have been used in training simulation for the Hubble Space Telescope repair, the International Space Station, and operations simulation for the Mars Exploration Rovers. In the future, robots such as may work as partners with astronauts on missions such as planetary exploration and extravehicular activities.
Clancey, William J.↗
The Applications of NASA Mission Technologies to the Greening of Human Impact
I will give an overview talk about flight software systems, robotics technologies and modeling for energy minimization as applied to vehicles and buildings infrastructures. A dominant issue in both design and operations of robotic spacecraft is the minimization of energy use. In the design and building of spacecraft increased power is acquired only at the cost of additional mass and volumes and ultimately cost. Consequently, interplanetary spacecrafts are designed to have the minimum essential power and those designs often incorporate careful timing of all power use. Operationally, the availability of power is the most influential constraint for the use of planetary surface robots, such as the Mars Exploration Rovers. The amount of driving done, the amount of science accomplished and indeed the survivability of the spacecraft itself is determined by the power available for use. For the Mars Exploration Rovers there are four tools which are used: (1) models of the rover and it s thermal and power use (2) predictive environmental models of power input and thermal environment (3) fine grained manipulation of power use (4) optimization modeling and planning tools. In this talk I will discuss possible applications of this methodology to minimizing power use on Earth, especially in buildings.
Sims, Michael H.↗
Simulation of Hazards and Poses for a Rocker-Bogie Rover
Provisions for specification of hazards faced by a robotic vehicle (rover) equipped with a rocker-bogie suspension, for prediction of collisions between the vehicle and the hazards, and for simulation of poses of the vehicle at selected positions on the terrain have been incorporated into software that simulates the movements of the vehicle on planned paths across the terrain. The software in question is that of the Web Interface for Telescience (WITS), selected aspects of which have been described in a number of prior NASA Tech Briefs articles. To recapitulate: The WITS is a system of computer software that enables scientists, located at geographically dispersed computer terminals connected to the World Wide Web, to command instrumented robotic vehicles (rovers) during exploration of Mars and perhaps eventually of other planets. The WITS also has potential for adaptation to terrestrial use in telerobotics and other applications that involve computer-based remote monitoring, supervision, control, and planning.
Backes, Paul↗
Inflatable robotics for planetary applications
Space Inflatable vehicles have been finding popularity in recent years for applications as varied as spacecraft antennas, space-based telescopes, solar sails, and manned habitats [1]. Another branch of space inflatable technology has also considered developing ambient gasfilled, solar balloons for Mars as well as ambient gasfilled inflatable rovers [2]. More recently, some other intriguing space-inflatable vehicles have been proposed for the gas planets and Pluto, as well as for Saturn's moon, Titan, Neptune's moon, Triton, and Jupiter's moon, Io [3].
Titan↗
Navigation Results from Desert Field Tests of the Rocky 7 Mars Rover Prototype
Upcoming missions to the surface of Mars will use mobile robots to traverse long distances from the landing site. To prepare enabling technologies for these missions, the protype rover, Rocky 7, has been tested in desert field trials conducted with a team of planetary scientists.
Mars mobile robots desert field trails sun-sensor ↗
Mars Orbiter Sample Return Power Design
Mars has greatly intrigued scientists and the general public for many years because, of all the planets, its environment is most like Earth's. Many scientists believe that Mars once had running water, although surface water is gone today. The planet is very cold with a very thin atmosphere consisting mainly of CO2. Mariner 4, 6, and 7 explored the planet in flybys in the 1960s and by the orbiting Mariner 9 in 1971. NASA then mounted the ambitious Viking mission, which launched two orbiters and two landers to the planet in 1975. The landers found ambiguous evidence of life. Mars Pathfinder landed on the planet on July 4, 1997, delivering a mobile robot rover that demonstrated exploration of the local surface environment. Mars Global Surveyor is creating a highest-resolution map of the planet's surface. These prior and current missions to Mars have paved the way for a complex Mars Sample Return mission planned for 2003 and 2005. Returning surface samples from Mars will necessitate retrieval of material from Mars orbit. Sample mass and orbit are restricted to the launch capability of the Mars Ascent Vehicle. A small sample canister having a mass less than 4 kg and diameter of less than 16 cm will spend from three to seven years in a 600 km orbit waiting for retrieval by a second spacecraft consisting of an orbiter equipped with a sample canister retrieval system, and a Earth Entry Vehicle. To allow rapid detection of the on-orbit canister, rendezvous, and collection of the samples, the canister will have a tracking beacon powered by a surface mounted solar array. The canister must communicate using RF transmission with the recovery vehicle that will be coming in 2006 or 2009 to retrieve the canister. This paper considers the aspect and conclusion that went into the design of the power system that achieves the maximum power with the minimum risk. The power output for the spherical orbiting canister was modeled and plotted in various views of the orbit by the Satellite Orbit Analysis Program (SOAP).
Mardesich, N.↗