Teaming and Innovation to Create a Low Cost Power Subsystem for the Mars Microrover
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This paper summarizes the activites and results of the effort to conduct a low-cost, yet meaningful risk management program for the MFEX, which was originally designated as a high risk payload.
In 1996, NASA will launch the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, which will carry an 11 kg rover to.
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On 4 July 1997, the Mars Pathfinder landed on the surface of Mars carrying the first planetary rover, known as the Sojourner. Formally known as the Microrover Flight Experiment (MFEX), the Sojourner was a low cost, high-risk technology demonstration, in which new risk management techniques were tried. This paper summarizes the activities and results of the effort to conduct a low-cost, yet meaningful risk management program for the MFEX. The specific activities focused on cost, performance, schedule, and operations risks. Just as the systems engineering process was iterative and produced successive refinements of requirements, designs, etc., so was the risk management process. Qualitative risk assessments were performed first to gain some insights for refining the microrover design and operations concept. These then evolved into more quantitative analyses. Risk management lessons from the manager's perspective is presented for other low-cost, high-risk space missions.
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The advent of spacecraft miniaturization promises a new generation of affordable planetary missions; they will be more cost effective - by one to two orders of magniture - than those of traditional design.
Non-geometric hazards (i.e., those which cannot be characterized solely by their shape, but instead are related to mechanical properties such as strength and friction) may pose a significant risk to planetary rovers. This paper describes a means for an articulated vehicle to detect sinkage and slippage in such material so as to prevent entrapment and to correct for dead-reckoning errors.
The sinkage and slippage detection methodologies employed by a MESUR Pathfinder microrover, Rocky 3.2, are discussed. Results from a simulation are presented.
The Mars Pathfinder Microrover, its operational environment and the.
The Mars Pathfinder Microrover Flight Experiment (MFEX) is a NASA OACT flight experiment which is planned to be delivered and integrated with the Mars Pathfinder (MFP) lander and spacecraft system for landing on Mars on July 4, 1997. After landing, the MFEX rover is deployed from the lander and begins a 7 sol (1 sol=1 Martian day) mission to conduct technology experiments, deploy an alpha proton x-ray spectrometer (APXS) on rocks and soil, and image the lander as part of the engineering assessment of the mission after landing.
The Mars Pathfinder Microrover Flight Experiment (MFEX) is a NASA Office of Space Access and Technology (OSAT) flight experiment which has been delivered and integrated with the Mars Pathfinder (MPF) lander and spacecraft system. The total cost of the MFEX mission, including all subsystem design and development, test, integration with the MPF lander and operations on Mars has been capped at $25 M??is paper discusses the process and the implementation scheme which has resulted in the development of this first Mars rover.
The Microrover Flight Experiment (FEX) is a NASA Office of Space Access and Technology flight experiment of mobile vehicle technologies, whose primary mission is to determine microrover performance in the poorly understood planetary terrain of Mars.
The Mars Pathfinder Microrover Flight Experiment (MFEX) will be carried by the Mars Pathfinder mission to the surface of Mars, where it will perform technology, science and Mars mission engineeering experiments in July, 1997.
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This paper provides an overview of the design of the Mars Pathfinder Microrover with an emphasis on how its integrated design enables it to perform all of the functions normally associated with entire spacecraft. The impact that mass, volume, and power constraints have had upon the design will also be discussed.
A discussion of the power requirements for the Mars Pathfinder Mission is given. Topics include: battery requirements; cell design; battery design; test descriptions and results. A summary of the results is also included.
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