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Bioinspired Engineering Exploration Systems (BEES), is enabling new bioinspired sensors for autonomous exploration of Mars. The steps towards autonomy in development of these BEES flyers are described. A future set of Mars mission that are uniquely enabled by surch flyers are finally described.
Project Overview: NASA’s 12th Discovery Program mission that will place a single geophysical lander on Mars to study its deep interior using seismic (tidal, marsquake, and impact), rotational, and thermal measurements -First mission to unveil the composition, structure and thermal state of martian crust, mantle and core; Rebuild of the Phoenix flight system, upgraded with Juno/GRAIL avionics -Phoenix cruise stage: 3-axis stabilized, 3.2 square meter UTJ (Ultra Triple-Junction) solar array, X-band telecom -Phoenix aeroshell (heat shield, backshell, parachute) -Phoenix lander: radar, pulsed thrusters, legs, payload deck, 5.1 square meter UTJ solar arrays, two redundant Li-ion batteries, UHF (Ultra High Frequency)/X-band telecom -Dual string: Internally or functionally-redundant equipment; Science Payload -SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) / CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales); Three-axis seismometry, to measure seismic waves traveling through the interior -HP3 (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe) / DLR (German Aerospace Center) -Subsurface heat probe, to measure the heat flux from the interior - RISE (Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment) / JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) -Radiometric geodesy, to determine precession & nutation of the planet’s rotation axis. 2016 Disclaimer: The InSight launch in 2016 was suspended due to critical issues with the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument that could not be fixed prior to the planned launch period. This presentation and its corresponding paper represent the state of the design for the 2016 mission. No attempt has been made to reflect the latest developments. [2018 Note: InSight (Mars Lander) was later launched and arrived on Mars on Nov. 26, 2018.]
In the past two years, NASA has begun to develop and implement plans for investigations on robotic Mars missions which are focused toward returning data critical for planning human missions to Mars. The Mars Surveyor Program 2001 Orbiter and Lander missions will mark the first time that experiments dedicated to preparation for human exploration will be carried out. Investigations on these missions and future missions range from characterization of the physical and chemical environment of Mars, to predicting the response of biology to the Mars environment. Planning for such missions must take into account existing data from previous Mars missions which were not necessarily focused on human exploration preparation. At the same time, plans for near term missions by the international community must be considered to avoid duplication of effort. This paper reviews data requirements for human exploration and applicability of existing data. It will also describe current plans for investigations and place them within the context of related international activities. c 2000 International Astronautical Federation. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
As the prospect grows for a Mars sample return mission early in the next millennium, it will be important to ensure that appropriate planetary protection (PP) controls are incorporated into the mission design and implementation from the start. The need for these PP controls is firmly based on scientific considerations and backed by a number of national and international agreements and guidelines aimed at preventing harmful cross contamination of planets and extraterrestrial bodies. The historical precedent for the use of PP measures on both unmanned and manned missions traces from post-Sputnik missions to the present, with periodic modifications as new information was obtained. In consideration of the anticipated attention to PP questions by both the scientific/technical community and the public, this paper presents a comprehensive review of the major issues and problems surrounding PP for a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, including an analysis of arguments that have been raised for and against the imposition of PP measures. Also discussed are the history and foundations for PP policies and requirements; important research areas needing attention prior to defining detailed PP requirements for a MSR mission; and legal and public awareness issues that must be considered with mission planning.
As the prospect grows for a Mars sample return mission early in the next millennium, it will be important to ensure that appropriate planetary protection (PP) controls are incorporated into the mission design and implementation from the start. The need for these PP controls is firmly based on scientific considerations and backed by a number of national and international agreements and guidelines aimed at preventing harmful cross contamination of planets and extraterrestrial bodies. The historical precedent for the use of PP measures on both unmanned and manned missions traces from post-Sputnik missions to the present, with periodic modifications as new information was obtained. In consideration of the anticipated attention to PP questions by both the scientific/technical community and the public, this paper presents a comprehensive review of the major issues and problems surrounding PP for a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, including an analysis of arguments that have been raised for and against the imposition of PP measures. Also discussed are the history and foundations for PP policies and requirements; important research areas needing attention prior to defining detailed PP requirements for a MSR mission; and legal and public awareness issues that must be considered with mission planning.
Previous Mars rover sample return mission studies have shown a requirement for Titan 4 or STS Space Shuttle launch vehicles to complete a sample return from a single Mars site. These studies have either used terrestrial propellants or considered in situ production of methane and oxygen for the return portion of the mission. Using in situ propellants for the return vehicles reduces the Earth launch mass and allows for a smaller Earth launch vehicle, since the return propellant is not carried from Earth. Carbon monoxide and oxygen (CO/O2) and methane and oxygen (CH4/O2) were investigated as in situ propellants for a Mars sample return mission and the results were compared to a baseline study performed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory using terrestrial propellants. Capability for increased sample return mass, use of an alternate launch vehicle, and an additional mini-rover as payload were included. CO/O2 and CH4/O2 were found to decrease the baseline Earth launch mass by 13.6 and 9.2 percent, respectively. This resulted in higher payload mass margins for the baseline Atlas 2AS launch vehicle. CO/O2 had the highest mass margin. And because of this, it was not only possible to increase the sample return mass and carry an additional mini-rover, but was also possible to use the smaller Atlas 2A launch vehicle.
Previous Mars rover sample return mission studies have shown a requirement for Titan 4 or STS Space Shuttle launch vehicles to complete a sample return from a single Mars site. These studies have either used terrestrial propellants or considered in situ production of methane and oxygen for the return portion of the mission. Using in situ propellants for the return vehicles reduces the Earth launch mass and allows for a smaller Earth launch vehicle, since the return propellant is not carried from Earth. Carbon monoxide and oxygen (CO/O2) and methane and oxygen (CH4/O2) were investigated as in situ propellants for a Mars sample return mission and the results were compared to a baseline study performed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory using terrestrial propellants. Capability for increased sample return mass, use of an alternate launch vehicle, and an additional mini-rover as payload were included. CO/O2 and CH4/O2 were found to decrease the baseline Earth launch mass by 13.6 and 9.2 percent, respectively. This resulted in higher payload mass margins for the baseline Atlas 2AS launch vehicle. CO/O2 had the highest mass margin. And because of this, it was not only possible to increase the sample return mass and carry an additional mini-rover, but was also possible to use the smaller Atlas 2A launch vehicle.
The Mars Phoenix Lander mission was launched on August 4th, 2007. To land safely at the desired landing location on the Mars surface, the spacecraft trajectory had to be controlled to a set of stringent atmospheric entry and landing conditions. The landing location needed to be controlled to an elliptical area with dimensions of 100km by 20km. The two corresponding critical components of the atmospheric entry conditions are the entry flight path angle (target: -13.0 deg +/-0.21 deg) and the entry time (within +/-30 seconds). The purpose of this paper is to describe the navigation strategies used to overcome the challenges posed during spacecraft operations, which included an attitude control thruster calibration campaign, a trajectory control strategy, and a trajectory reconstruction strategy. Overcoming the navigation challenges resulted in final Mars atmospheric entry conditions just 0.007 deg off in entry flight path angle and 14.9 sec early in entry time. These entry dispersions in addition to the entry, descent, and landing trajectory dispersion through the atmosphere, lead to a final landing location just 7 km away from the desired landing target.
Mars atmospheric characterization is critical for exploring the planet. Future Mars missions require landing massive payloads to the surface with high accuracy. The accuracy of entry, descent and landing (EDL) of a payload is a major technical challenge for future Mars missions. Mars EDL depends on atmospheric conditions such as density, wind and dust as well as surface topography. A Mars orbiting 2-micron lidar system is presented in this paper. This advanced lidar is capable of measuring atmospheric pressure and temperature profiles using the most abundant atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) on Mars. In addition Martian winds and surface altimetry can be mapped, independent of background radiation or geographical location. This orbiting lidar is a valuable tool for developing EDL models for future Mars missions.
The Mars 2020 Rover mission is using automated scheduling in two capacities. As of March 2021 a ground-based scheduler automatically schedules rover wake/sleep and preheats to support Mars 2020 daily operations. Included in the ground system is an explainable scheduling tool that allows users in-sight into the schedule developed by the automated scheduler. An onboard scheduler that will allow the rover autonomously better account for variations in execution is in development for use later in the mission.
This viewgraph presentation reviews the 2001 Mars Odyssey Mission. The contents include: 1) Mission Overview; 2) Current Scope of Work: 3) Facilities; 4) Critical Role of DSN; 5) Relay as Mission Supplement; 6) Current Mars Telecom Infrastructure; 7) PHX EDL Comm Overview; 8) EDL Geometry (Entry through Landing); 9) Phoenix Support; 10) Preparations for Phoenix; 11) EDL Support Timeline; 12) One Year Rolling Schedule; 13) E3 Rationale; and 14) Spacecraft Status.
The status of the Mars Odyssey Mission is discussed, including mission statistics, science data return, UHF relay support, consumables and expected lifetime, spacecraft activity, safe mode operation, and mission scheduling.
In June 2018, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity became engulfed in the most intense global dust storm observed in its 14-year mission and in Mars’ recorded history. Sapped of life-giving solar energy, Opportunity fell silent to ground operators on June 11, in what would be its final call home. Over the course of the next eight months, the MER team employed numerous recovery efforts and radiated over one thousand commands to wake the silent rover. Although unsuccessful, MER’s dust-storm recovery team changed the paradigm of dust-storm operations from Opportunity’s survival of a previous global dust storm in 2007. In this paper, the authors offer a glimpse into MER’s recovery efforts and lessons learned from Opportunity dust-storm operations for future solar-powered Mars surface missions. In the first section, the authors discuss the indicators of the approaching dust storm and the actions the team employed to reduce Opportunity’s power consumption and preserve available battery charge prior to loss of contact. The second section discusses the team’s recovery efforts until Opportunity’s declared End-of-Mission, the steps the team took to re-establish contact with Opportunity, the assumptions made during each step of the recovery process, and the commanding actions employed. Finally, the authors discuss the operational impacts of global dust storms on the safe and successful operation of solar-powered spacecraft on the Martian surface, and offer design recommendations for future solar-powered missions from the lessons learned during Opportunity’s 14-year mission and experience through two global dust storms.
The Mars Sample Return Mission, designed to return a variety of surface and subsurface samples as well as atmospheric samples, is described. Primary information about the planet is essential to understanding its place in the evolution of the solar system. The most accurate landing techniques will be used to place the lander near geologically interesting features. A capable rover will be an essential element of the sample collection strategy to maximize the diversity of the samples. The sample collection and return systems will keep the samples at Mars ambient conditions or colder to preserve the abundances and distribution of volatile components. Planetary quarantine is an important consideration for both the Mars lander and the earth return vehicle. Quarantine procedures must be consistent with the primary objectives of the mission and must not compromise the investigations of the returned samples.
The Mars Surveyor Program (MSP) is an ongoing series of missions designed to robotically study, map and search for signs of life on the planet Mars. The MSP 2001 project will advance the effort by sending an orbiter, a lander and a rover to the red planet in the 2001 opportunity. Each vehicle will carry a science payload that will Investigate the Martian environment on both a global and on a local scale. Although this mission will not directly search for signs of life, or cache samples to be returned to Earth, it will demonstrate certain enabling technologies that will be utilized by the future Mars Sample Return missions. One technology that is needed for the Sample Return mission is the capability to place a vehicle on the surface within several kilometers of the targeted landing site. The MSP'01 Lander will take the first major step towards this type of precision landing at Mars. Significant reduction of the landed footprint will be achieved through two technology advances. The first, and most dramatic, is hypersonic aeromaneuvering; the second is improved approach navigation. As a result, the guided entry will produce in a footprint that is only tens of kilometers, which is an order of magnitude improvement over the Pathfinder and Mars Polar Lander ballistic entries. This reduction will significantly enhance scientific return by enabling the potential selection of otherwise unreachable landing sites with unique geologic interest and public appeal. A landed footprint reduction from hundreds to tens of kilometers is also a milestone on the path towards human exploration of Mars, where the desire is to place multiple vehicles within several hundred meters of the planned landing site. Hypersonic aeromaneuvering is an extension of the atmospheric flight goals of the previous landed missions, Pathfinder and Mars Polar Lander (MPL), that utilizes aerodynamic lift and an autonomous guidance algorithm while in the upper atmosphere. The onboard guidance algorithm will control the direction of the lift vector, via bank angle modulation, to keep the vehicle on the desired trajectory. While numerous autonomous guidance algorithms have been developed for use during hypersonic flight at Earth, this will be the first flight of an autonomously directed lifting entry vehicle at Mars. However, without sufficient control and knowledge of the atmospheric entry conditions, the guidance algorithm will not perform effectively. The goal of the interplanetary navigation strategy is to deliver the spacecraft to the desired entry condition with sufficient accuracy and knowledge to enable satisfactory guidance algorithm performance. Specifically, the entry flight path angle must not exceed 0.27 deg. to a 3 sigma confidence level. Entry errors will contribute directly to the size of the landed footprint and the most significant component is entry flight path angle. The size of the entry corridor is limited on the shallow side by integrated heating constraints, and on the steep side by deceleration (g-load) and terminal descent propellant. In order to meet this tight constraint it is necessary to place a targeting maneuver seven hours prior to the time of entry. At this time the trajectory knowledge will be quite accurate, and the effects of maneuver execution errors will be small. The drawback is that entry accuracy is dependent on the success of this final late maneuver. Because propulsive maneuvers are critical events, it is desirable to minimize their occurrence and provide the flight team with as much response time as possible in the event of a spacecraft fault. A mission critical maneuver at Entry - 7 hours does not provide much fault tolerance, and it is desirable to provide a strategy that minimizes reliance on this maneuver. This paper will focus on the Improvements in interplanetary navigation that will decrease entry errors and will reduce the landed footprint, even in the absence of aeromaneuvering. The easiest to take advantage of are Improvements In the knowledge of the Mars ephemeris and gravity field due to the MGS and MSP'98 missions. Improvements In data collection and reduction techniques such as "precislon ranging' and near-simultaneous tracking will also be utilized. In addition to precise trajectory control, a robust strategy for communications and flight operations must also be demonstrated. The result Is a navigation and communications strategy on approach that utilizes optimal maneuver placement to take advantage of trajectory knowledge, minimizes risk for the flight operations team, is responsive to spacecraft hardware limitations, and achieves the entry corridor. The MSP2001 mission Is managed at JPL under the auspices of the Mars Exploration Directorate. The spacecraft flight elements are built and managed by Lockheed-Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado.
Lighter-than-air planetary missions continued attract growing interest in Mars exploration due to unique combination of proximity to the surface and mobility that far surpasses capability of surface vehicles. Following the experience with the Sojourner rover and subsequent development of powerful rovers for Mars 2003 and 2005 missions it became clear that on Mars surface rover mobility is quite restricted. Realistic travel distances may be limited to tens of kilometers per year on relatively obstacle-free plains and a few kilometers or less on the more rugged terrains. Many areas on Mars will be inaccessible to rovers. Several concepts for a Mars aerobot (robotic balloon) mission have been pursued in the last decade. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.
The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission will land two landers on the surface of Mars, arriving in January 2004. Both landers will deliver the rovers to the surface by decelerating with the aid of an aeroshell, a supersonic parachute, retro-rockets, and air bags for safely landing on the surface. The reconstruction of the MER descent trajectory and atmosphere profile will be performed for all the phases from hypersonic flight through landing. A description of multiple methodologies for the flight reconstruction is presented from simple parameter identification methods through a statistical Kalman filter approach.
The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit landed in Gusev crater on Jan. 4, 2004 and the rover Opportunity arrived on the plains of Meridiani Planum on Jan. 25, 2004. The rovers continue to return new discoveries after 4 continuous Earth years of operations on the surface of the red planet. Spirit has successfully traversed 7.5 km over the Gusev crater plains, ascended to the top of Husband Hill, and entered into the Inner Basin of the Columbia Hills. Opportunity has traveled nearly 12 km over flat plains of Meridiani and descended into several impact craters. Spirit and Opportunity carry an integrated suite of scientific instruments and tools called the Athena science payload. The Athena science payload consists of the 1) Panoramic Camera (Pancam) that provides high-resolution, color stereo imaging, 2) Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) that provides spectral cubes at mid-infrared wavelengths, 3) Microscopic Imager (MI) for close-up imaging, 4) Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) for elemental chemistry, 5) Moessbauer Spectrometer (MB) for the mineralogy of Fe-bearing materials, 6) Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) for removing dusty and weathered surfaces and exposing fresh rock underneath, and 7) Magnetic Properties Experiment that allow the instruments to study the composition of magnetic martian materials [1]. The primary objective of the Athena science investigation is to explore two sites on the martian surface where water may once have been present, and to assess past environmental conditions at those sites and their suitability for life. The Athena science instruments have made numerous scientific discoveries over the 4 plus years of operations. The objectives of this paper are to 1) describe the major scientific discoveries of the MER robotic field geologists and 2) briefly summarize what major outstanding questions were not answered by MER that might be addressed by returning samples to our laboratories on Earth.