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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Scientific Significance of Potential Samples From the Jezero Crater Rim

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has been exploring Jezero crater, Mars to characterize the geology,assess the potential for rocks to represent ancient habitable environments and/or preserve biosignatures, and collect a suite of scientifically compelling samples for return to Earth (Farleyet al.,2020).Thus far, Perseverance has collected samples that represent the diversity of igneous materials encountered on the crater floor and a suite of aqueously deposited sedimentary rocks from the fanand margin units(Simon et al., 2023; Bosak et al., 2024). When the rover ascendsthe crater rimit will encounter rocktypesthat are not included in the current sample cache. These include rocks fromthe Noachian whose mineralogical, geochemical, and geochronological recordswould greatly expand our understanding of early Mars. Some of the exposures are understood to come from subsurface aquifers that may represent the most ancient potentially habitablesubsurfaceenvironmentson Mars(Ehlmann et al., 2024). Samples ofthese rocks will add uniquescientific value tothe sample cache and to the Mars sample returnprogramby addressing outstanding questions in Mars science including potential habitability and how the climate and the interior of the planet evolved through time.

Mars 2020↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Hover and Forward Flight Performance Modeling of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

In 2015, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory partnered with Ames Research Center, Langley Research Center, and AeroVironment to develop Ingenuity, a small coaxial helicopter capable of flying within Mars’ unique atmospheric conditions. Ingenuity was successfully deployed from its protective shroud on the underside of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover and has flown 17 flights on Mars as of December 2021. A number of rotorcraft analysis tools were utilized, and a series of experimental tests were performed to ready Ingenuity for its launch with the Perseverance Rover in July 2020. In this paper, RotCFD, a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes flow solver, is used to model Ingenuity in hover and forward flight for the purposes of validating tools to aid in the development of a future generation of Mars rotorcraft. The results from the RotCFD modeling are benchmarked against results from hover performance tests of the Ingenuity prototype in the 25-Foot Space Simulator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and are also compared to hover and forward flight predictions made by CAMRAD II, a well-known comprehensive rotorcraft analysis code. Surrogate performance models are trained to obtain a set of trimmed rotor settings for Ingenuity at different forward flight speeds, which are then used as inputs for the RotCFD forward flight simulations. Additionally, a study of the airframe-rotor interaction and a study of the aerodynamics of the individual airframe components of Ingenuity in forward flight are performed. Finally, to better understand performance predictions by RotCFD and CAMRAD II, a study is conducted on how sectional angles of attack in each code vary with radial station and azimuth.

Hover↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Fluid-Structure Interaction Simulations of the ASPIRE SR03 Supersonic Parachute Flight Test

Research into parachute performance continues to be a source of significant investment from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to mitigate risks and to enable a variety of exploration missions, including landing on Mars as well as returning to Earth. The cost of flight tests to certify any changes to the current state-of-the-art parachute designs limits the development of next generation parachute systems. Fluid-structure interaction simulations could help accelerate this process once validated. The Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics team is developing the capability to perform such fluid-structure interaction simulations by coupling a higher-order Cartesian immersed boundary computational fluid dynamics solver with adaptive mesh refinement to a finite element structural dynamics solver in space and time. We continue the effort to validate this tool with the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiments SR03 flight test featuring a strengthened parachute akin to the Mars 2020 mission that landed the Perseverance rover on Mars, and a higher freestream dynamic pressure prior to inflation. The effect of the flow conditions’ angle of attack and of the initial parachute shape are quantified. The impact of relaxing modeling assumptions with regards to radial stiffeners on the parachute canopy is also investigated. Results demonstrate improvements in agreement with the pull force recorded during the SR03 flight test as the initial conditions of the flow and parachute are brought closer to those experienced in flight, and further improved when the radial stiffener modeling assumptions are relaxed.

ESM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Fluid-Structure Interaction Simulations of the ASPIRE SR03 Supersonic Parachute Flight Test

Research into parachute performance continues to be a source of significant investment from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to mitigate risks and to enable a variety of exploration missions, including landing on Mars as well as returning to Earth. The cost of flight tests to certify any changes to the current state-of-the-art parachute designs limits the development of next generation parachute systems. Fluid-structure interaction simulations could help accelerate this process once validated. The Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics team is developing the capability to perform such fluid-structure interaction simulations by coupling a higher-order Cartesian immersed boundary computational fluid dynamics solver with adaptive mesh refinement to a finite element structural dynamics solver in space and time. We continue the effort to validate this tool with the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiments SR03 flight test featuring a strengthened parachute akin to the Mars 2020 mission that landed the Perseverance rover on Mars, and a higher freestream dynamic pressure prior to inflation. The effect of the flow conditions’ angle of attack and of the initial parachute shape are quantified. The impact of relaxing modeling assumptions with regards to radial stiffeners on the parachute canopy is also investigated. Results demonstrate improvements in agreement with the pull force recorded during the SR03 flight test as the initial conditions of the flow and parachute are brought closer to those experienced in flight, and further improved when the radial stiffener modeling assumptions are relaxed.

ESM↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Mars Sample Return, Sample Retrieval Lander, Reaction Control System Jet Interaction Supersonic Wind Tunnel Test Overview with CFD Predictions

NASA's Mars Sample Return campaign will be launching several missions over the next decade that will work together to return rock samples from Mars back to Earth. The Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) will deliver the Mars Ascent Vehicle and fetch rover to the surface of Mars in 2006. Rock samples collected by the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, landing in early 2021, will be loaded on the the ascent vehicle to be launched into Mars orbit for retrieval by yet another spacecraft. The Sample Retrieval Lander will be a blunt entry capsule similar to past Mars entry vehicles like Mars Science Laboratory and Viking. The vehicle will fly a guided entry, using a small lift vector produced by a non-zero trim angle of attack to eliminate downrange and crossrange position errors at the point of parachute deploy. This energy and heading management is achieved with a reaction control system (RCS) that directs the bank angle of the vehicle and also minimizes unwanted capsule dynamics. The reaction control system and control design is based on the Mars Science Laboratory and Mars 2020 RCS systems. However, due to packaging constraints, the backshell of this new entry vehicle has a different geometry than those earlier designs. To certify the RCS system for flight the project must characterize the jet plume interactions with the capsule backshell that could impair or significantly augment the RCS control authority. This characterization will be done through a combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis and wind tunnel test. Two candidate arrangements of the RCS jets have been identified for the SRL vehicle and are currently under evaluation before final selection. The aero/RCS plume interactions of these candidate configurations have been measured in a supersonic wind tunnel test in NASA Langley's Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel. The test was conducted in the fall of 2020 and data is currently being reduced. An overview of the candidate RCS configurations are presented here with an overview of the wind tunnel model design, jet scaling and scaled nozzle design, and the test matrix. Preliminary CFD runs are presented with an assessment of the predicted plumes and their interaction with the wake flow of the vehicle. The predicted effects of the model sting is provided as well. This high fidelity wind tunnel test is being conducted much earlier in the SRL project than would normally be done. The test was funded as part of a CFD evaluation task funded by NASA's Aerosciences Evaluation and Test Capabilities Project. The objective of the evaluation task was to compare the ability of CFD to predict complex flows with data that can be measured in the Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel. RCS Jet interactions were selected as a type of complex flow that is important to NASA missions. In addition to providing useful data to the SRL project, there was added emphasis on quantifying the accuracy of the CFD predictions and wind tunnel test data. An overview of the uncertainty quantification methodologies for computational and experimental portions of this test is presented.

blunt body↗
NASA NTRS2022

Mars 2020 Entry, Descent, and Landing as Observed by Radio Science Techniques at UHF and X-band Frequencies

On February 18, 2021, NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover “Perseverance” conducted the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) sequence to land safely on the surface of Mars at Jezero Crater. Due to the criticality of the EDL sequence, redundant telecommunications strategies were utilized to observe the event. The rover transmitted an X-band (8.4 GHz) signal encoded with Multiple Frequency Shift Keying tones direct-to-Earth and a UHF (401.5 MHz) signal with 8 kbps encoded telemetry to orbiters, which relayed the signal back to Earth at X-band. NASA’s Deep Space Network complexes at Goldstone, California and Madrid, Spain received the direct-to-Earth X-band signal. Two of the largest steerable radio telescopes in the world, the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Effelsberg 100-meter Radio Telescope in Germany also received the UHF carrier signal on Earth. During the EDL event, full spectrum recordings of the UHF and X-band signals were captured at these observatories using open-loop receivers. Real-time and post-processing signal analysis to determine power level, received frequency, and Doppler shift allowed determination of the spacecraft’s health and safety state during critical sequences, including event detection such as atmospheric entry, plasma blackouts, and parachute deployment. Simultaneous observations of the UHF and X-band radio links allow for redundancy in the event of a fault and greatly improve confidence in Doppler event detection.

Gladden, Roy↗
NASA NTRS2022

Balancing Predictive and Reactive Science Planning for Mars 2020 Perseverance

The design of the science planning process for a space science mission needs to find a balance between operational and resource constraints and scientific decision-making. Science planning has previously been characterized as either predictive or reactive. Predictive science planning is needed when constraints drive science activities to be planned far in advance. For example, a combination of long one-way light time plus high-stakes science decisions drove the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn to have an extremely predictive planning process. On the other extreme, reactive science planning is needed when constraints drive science activities to be planned based on the results of the previous plan. For example, the Mars Exploration Rover mission interacted with the surface of Mars, and so the planning team needed to know the state of the rover at the end of each planning cycle before starting the next cycle. Operational and resource constraints that require management on intermediate timescales has led to the development of a science planning process between these two extremes. For example, the Mars Science Laboratory is a technically complex rover and has a parallel predictive process that allows the operations team to manage engineering constraints several days in advance while maintaining the reactive tactical planning process similar to that of MER. The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is a technically complex rover in the MSL style, but has an added layer of science complexity: it is tasked with collecting a returnable cache of scientifically valuable samples of Mars within prime mission. Thus, the science planning process also needs to accommodate high-stakes longer-term science decisions in the style of Cassini. In order to balance the push-pull of these constraints, we have developed a science campaign-focused operational paradigm for Mars 2020 Perseverance that allows for both predictive planning to accommodate technological complexity and high-stakes science decisions as well as reactive planning to accommodate the realities of interacting with the martian surface. This paradigm influenced the design of operational processes and operational tools.

Spanovich, Nicole↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Astrobiological Potential of Rocks Acquired By the Perseverance Rover at the Front of the Western Sediment Fan in Jezero Crater, Mars.

Major objectives of the Perseverance rover mission include identifying past habitable environments, collecting rocks that are likely to preserve biosignatures and using the rover’s instruments to look for potential biosignatures in these rocks. The recognition of the > 3.5 billion-year old habitable environments in Jezero crater, Mars (Fig. 1); promised that the mission could achieve these objectives. The western sedimentary fan deposit, the hydrated minerals therein and the carbonate minerals at the margin of this fan were identified as particularly compelling areas in which to search for the signs of past life and collect the oldest aqueously deposited rocks from another planet.

Mars 2020↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

An Orbital Photogeologic Map of the Jezero Crater Rim: Diverse Targets for Mars 2020 Future Exploration.

The Perseverance rover on the Mars 2020 mission is currently collecting samples in Jezero crater for potential future return to Earth by the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. Jezero is a 45 km diameter mid- to late-Noachian-aged crater selected for its diverse geology and potential for preserving evidence of ancient life. The rover is approaching the crater rim, an area of interest for its potential to preserve diverse lithologies representative of a large period of geologic history. It has significant astrobiological potential, as it may preserve evidence of uplifted deep crust and ancient hydrothermal environments. Impact megabreccia in the crater rim may be exhumed pre-Noachian crust from the Isidis impact, which would likely be the oldest materials ever investigated by a rover on Mars. Additionally, the rim hosts outcrops of the regionally extensive and potentially volcanic olivine/carbonate unit and mafic capping unit, which could have implications for the evolution of Mars volcanism. Regional maps have delineated the lithologies present in and around Jezero as a whole. The largest scale that the crater rim geology has been mapped is 1:5000.

M C Deahn↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Mars Sample Return Analogue Collection

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover touched down in Jezero crater on February 18th, 2021, and sealed the first sample for Mars Sample Return (MSR) later that summer. As of sol 1088, 23 rock cores have been collected across a diverse set of lithologies that span rock types from sedimentary to igneous. As the cache on Perseverance continues to grow, the overall portfolio of MSR expands, creating long lasting implications for a wide net in the scientific community as well as supporting detailed analyses for generations to come. To best prepare for these precious samples to return to Earth one day, NASA and ESA are jointly planning to create a MSR Analogue Collection that will be available to the community in the near future.

M T Thorpe↗
NASA NTRS2020

Mars 2020 Rover Adaptive Caching Assembly: Caching Martian Samples for Potential Earth Return

The Adaptive Caching Assembly (ACA) is part of the Sampling and Caching System on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover, and consists of multiple stations that process, hermetically seal, and store sample tubes containing collected Martian material, either rock cores or regolith samples, in preparation for caching on the surface of Mars. The ACA stations consist of seven active degrees-of-freedom, as well as a large number of passive mechanisms that must operate in extreme Mars temperature and pressure conditions. A robotic arm within the Rover manipulates the sample tubes between ACA stations as part of an end-to-end sampling sequence, and utilizes a compliant end effector to accommodate misalignments during station interactions. Stringent hardware cleanliness requirements were dictated to ensure collected samples would not be compromised, which significantly impacted the design, assembly, and test operations of the ACA. Three ACAs were assembled to support ground testing and flight operations, which were exposed to environmental testing to validate functionality in Mars-like conditions. A number of challenges existed from design through test, including volume constraints, mechanism controllability and operation, the effects of tight tolerances, and cleanliness requirements.

Lin, Justin↗
NASA NTRS2024

Going With the Flow: Sedimentary Evolution of the Jezero Western Fan, Mars

Sedimentary fans developed at the mouths of Martian valleys have been interpreted as the deposits of sustained surface water flow on early Mars building either fluvial fan systems or deltas into standing bodies of water. Whilst much insight has been gleaned from orbital observations, it is only possible to constrain the character, relative timing and persistence of ancient aqueous activity on Mars through detailed on-the-ground interrogation of sedimentary successions built during fan growth. A prominent sedimentary fan deposit at the western margin of Jezero crater – the Western fan – has been interpreted from orbital data/observations to be a river delta that prograded into an ancient lake basin during the Late Noachian-Early Hesperian epochs on Mars (~3.6-3.8 Ga). The Western fan deposit forms a point-sourced depositional system developed at the mouth of Neretva Vallis, a valley system that is incised across the crater rim and has an extensive extra-crater catchment draining over diverse ancient geological units in Nili Planum. The mechanism of crater rim breaching remains unconstrained. Between 2022 and 2023, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover explored the Western fan, with the objective of characterizing its paleoenvironmental context and collecting a diverse suite of sedimentary rock samples for return to Earth via the Mars Sample Return mission. Perseverance has now completed her traverse across the Western fan having commenced in the distal downstream sectors exposed at the erosional front of the fan and then crossing across its upper exposed surface toward the fan apex region near the mouth of Neretva Vallis. This transect provides a unique window into a Martian sediment routing system at a time when climate conditions permitted the flow of surface water. In this contribution, we review the overall sedimentary architecture of the fan and develop a model for its evolution based on detailed mapping of lithofacies changes across the fan. A first-order synoptic overview is presented.

Mars 2020↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Connecting Community Scientific Hypotheses to Mars Sample Science

The proposed Mars Sample Return (MSR) program seeks to bring back to Earth a set of specially curated samples from the surface of Mars. The first segment of the MSR program is presently under-way; the Mars 2020 rover Perseverance has, to date, collected 24 samples of martian rock, regolith, and at-mosphere within Jezero crater. Its geologically diverse rock sample set can provide insight into the time evolu-tion of the Jezero environment, including the possible preservation of ancient biosignatures. Presently, a cache of 10 samples has been deposited in the Three Forks region on the floor of Jezero crater. These sam-ples, deemed scientifically return worthy by the Mars science community [1], are intended as a contingency sample set, as Perseverance has subsequently obtained more samples, and is therefore storing a more compre-hensive and scientifically valuable set of samples that will grow as the rover ascends to the rim of Jezero crater. The return of samples from Mars has been identi-fied as the highest priority planetary mission in the past three National Academies Decadal Surveys [2-4]. Sub-stantial work has gone into establishing science objec-tives for an MSR program, an overall framework for sample retrieval and analysis, and the expected impact on future Mars science and exploration (e.g., [5]). These objectives have been established at a relatively high level, e.g., “Interpret the primary geologic pro-cesses and history that formed the martian geologic rec-ord, with an emphasis on the role of water.” (Objective 1 in [5]) and are designed to encapsulate the broad sci-entific priorities of, and lay the groundwork for, inves-tigation strategies and measurements to be conducted by a future MSR program. It is from this overarching framework that the Connecting Community Scientific Hypotheses to Mars Sample Science workshop (‘The Workshop’) was conceived, with the purpose of distil-ling these high-level scientific objectives into discrete, testable hypotheses across a range of scientific disci-plines. The output of the workshop is meant to be a ‘hy-pothesis document’ serving as a starting point for cata-loging and condensing specific hypotheses for consid-eration by the scientific community. The template for this approach is based on the “driving hypotheses” de-veloped by the OSIRIS-REx team as part of their Sam-ple Analysis Plan [6].

Michael A Mischna↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Mars 2020 Thermal Protection Systems (TPS)

This is a presentation for the Destination Space 2021 STEM activities leading up to and beyond the landing of the Perseverance Rover on Mars. This presentation will look at the thermal protection systems for the Mars entry vehicle by first showing the overall spacecraft, explaining a little about the mission, describing the harrowing entry and the reason why TPS is required. It will give a little introduction to the materials and how they behave. Finally a little background on the author is presented along with encouragement to look into engineering if students love math and science.

Mars 2020↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Biosignature Preservation Potential of Sulfate-Rich Rocks From Hogwallow Flats, Jezero Crater, Mars

The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover discovered fine grained sedimentary rocks in the Hogwallow Flats member of the Shenandoah Formation at the ~3.6- to 3.8-billion-year-old Jezero crater, Mars. Mudstones and sandstones at the 3-meter-thick Hogwallow Flats (HWF) outcrop, and a laterally equivalent outcrop known as “Yori Pass”, show extensive evidence of diagenesis (alteration after deposition). Enhanced preservation of organic matter and other biosignatures can occur in early diagenetic environments associated with aqueous alteration in a lake, floodplain or pro-deltaic setting, as envisaged for HWF and Yori Pass [1]. Three drilled rock cores were collected from HWF-type bedrock as part of the Mars Sample Return Program. They are considered to be the samples with the highest potential to preserve organic compounds and biosignatures out of all samples collected so far by Perseverance (as of mission Sol 1000) [2]. This work outlines the implications of diagenesis for biosignature preservation in rock samples for possible return to Earth.

Mars 2020↗
NASA NTRS2020

Results From the First Four Years of Aegis Autonomous Target-ing for Chemcam on Mars Science Laboratory and New Capability Planned for Supercam on Mars 2020 Rover

Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) was uploaded on the NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover in 2015 for autonomous target selection. This paper presents results from the first four years of its regular opera-tion on Mars for autonomously selecting targets for the ChemCam remote geochemical spectrometer with a focus on the most recent findings. Results show that AEGIS has targeted the most desired material greater than 93% of the time vs 24% without onboard intelligent targeting. There has also been a notable increase in the rate of ChemCam observations. AE-GIS is also part of surface flight software for the NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. This paper describes new AEGIS capabilities that will be availa-ble for autonomously targeting the SuperCam in-strument after the planned 18 February 2021 landing in Jezero crater on Mars.

Castano, R↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Assessment of the Mars 2020 Entry, Descent, and Landing Simulation

On February 18, 2021, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover successfully landed inside Jezero Crater at 18.44463 deg North latitude and 77.45088 deg East longitude. At 1026 kg, Perseverance is the largest, most sophisticated rover ever delivered to another planet. This event marked the ninth successful landing and fifth rover to be delivered at Mars. The Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II (POST2) is a trajectory simulation tool maintained by the NASA Langley Research Center. POST2 was the prime EDL performance simulation for Mars 2020. This tool has significant heritage on the previous Pathfinder, MER, Phoenix, InSight, and MSL landings. This paper presents a few initial comparisons between EDL flight telemetry and POST2 simulation predictions. These comparisons are important in order to understand how each of the individual models performed, as well as the integrated simulation as a whole. This information is fed forward to future missions, which benefit from the knowing where additional resources or study are needed and where uncertainties may be reduced to enable improved performance.

David W Way↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Assessment of the Mars 2020 Entry, Descent, and Landing Simulation

On February 18, 2021, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover successfully landed inside Jezero Crater at 18.44463 deg North latitude and 77.45088 deg East longitude. At 1026 kg, Perseverance is the largest, most sophisticated rover ever delivered to another planet. This event marked the ninth successful landing and fifth rover to be delivered at Mars. The Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II (POST2) is a trajectory simulation tool maintained by the NASA Langley Research Center. POST2 was the prime EDL performance simulation for Mars 2020. This tool has significant heritage on the previous Pathfinder, MER, Phoenix, InSight, and MSL landings. This paper presents a few initial comparisons between EDL flight telemetry and POST2 simulation predictions. These comparisons are important in order to understand how each of the individual models performed, as well as the integrated simulation as a whole. This information is fed forward to future missions, which benefit from the knowing where additional resources or study are needed and where uncertainties may be reduced to enable improved performance.

David Way↗