Paper ID: 763 The 16th International Conference on Space Operations 2020

Human Factors, Training and Knowledge Transfer (HFT) (11) HFT - 2 ”Building New Knowledge ” (2)

Author: Dr. Brian Glass National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States, brian.glass@nasa.gov

Ms. Linda Kobayashi National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States, [email protected] Dr. Carol Stoker National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States, [email protected] Ms. Sarah Seitz National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States, [email protected] Dr. Dean Bergman Honeybee Robotics, United States, [email protected] Dr. Victor Parro Centro de Astrobiologia (INTA-CSIC), Spain, [email protected] Dr. Richard Quinn National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States, [email protected] Dr. Alfonso Davila National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States, [email protected] Dr. Peter Willis NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, United States, [email protected] Dr. William Brinckerhoff National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States, william.b.brinckerhoff@nasa.gov Dr. Jocelyne DiRuggiero The John Hopkins University, United States, [email protected]

ATACAMA ROVER ASTROBIOLOGY DRILLING STUDIES (ARADS) PROJECT: REMOTE ROVER, DRILLING AND INSTRUMENT OPERATIONS IN A MISSION SIMULATION

Abstract Future scientific sample acquisition from Mars icy layers (poles to mid-latitudes) requires a drill capable of penetrating depths of a meter or greater, similar to ExoMars or the proposed Icebreaker mission. Autonomous operation of a rover/drilling system in a remote high-fidelity terrestrial analog environment illuminates the difficult issues of drilling into an unknown substrate, drill site sensing and selection, drill system emplacement and stabilization, forward/backward contamination control and robotic sample transfer to instruments with varying sample input requirements. Since 2016 the Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) project has been testing and demonstrating relevant roving and drilling astrobiology technologies for Mars, intended to show the sci- ence value of such a mission in the direct search for extant/past life. Designed originally as a field prototype rover that would emulate elements of the 2000s-era Astrobiology Field Laboratory mission con- cept, ARADS has demonstrated mobile biomarker detection technologies that are candidate methods for instruments on proposed future missions. In September 2019 the integrated ARADS system was demonstrated in realistic field and remote science operations simulations, with protocols and operations flows modeled on those proposed for the Mars 2020

1 rover mission. Digital text channels (Slack) and shared online real-time operational data repositories supported an accelerated daily operations cycle between a mission operations center (at NASA Ames) and the autonomous rover operations in Chile. As an astrobiology mission concept prototype, ARADS has been defined by a series of field tests (over 4 years 2016-19) of an increasingly-integrated rover/drill system, carrying mission-prototype instruments selected specifically for studying habitability and past/extant biomarkers. Past and current studies of habitability and biomarkers in the same Atacama Desert areas provide both ground truth and controls on the fielded instrument results. The Spanish Signs of Life Detector (SOLID) prototype, an Ames brassboard of Phoenix’s Wet Chemistry Laboratory (WCL), JPL’s Microfluidic Life Analyzer (MILA) and (in its own portable Mars chamber) the Laser Desorption Mass Spectrometer (LDMS, one-half of the ExoMars MOMA instrument) from NASA-Goddard, are the ARADS field instruments. The fifth generation of a series of space-prototype, 1-2m-class rotary-percussive drills by Honeybee Robotics, a sample transfer robotic arm from the developers of the Phoenix and InSight arms (SSL Robotics) and a new autonomous mid-sized rover concept (K-REX2) developed by NASA-Ames, have been designed, developed or modified for the integration required for the successive ARADS analog site field demonstrations in 2016-19. The ARADS operations concept includes: 1) use of an integrated drill and rover at sites in the Ata- cama Desert in Chile; 2) demonstration of remote mission and science support (operations and control) for ARADS in field operations; 3) field use of instruments with the rover/drill that are flight prototypes comparable to those planned for/part of future mission proposals; 4) “ground-truthing” of instrument pro- totypes with laboratory based measurements of these Mars-analog soils; 5) to acquire and autonomously (and cleanly) transfer drilled samples; 6) reliance on on-board autonomy, fault-detection and monitoring. The automated control and executive software onboard is built on lessons learned from over 15 years of drill autonomy software development. Software development began with the DAME drill (2008), with a simplified software version later developed for the CRUX and Icebreaker drills (2014). The ARADS software is a rewrite of robotic drilling control software that incorporates lessons learned from testing the drill diagnostic procedures developed for both DAME and CRUX. It has been rewritten in the NASA Ames-developed PLEXIL (plan execution language) to allow for a higher degree of modularity and on the fly modification or updates of diagnostics and recovery procedures. Implemented in PLEXIL, the onboard executive in 2019 field testing demonstrated real-time nominal and fault-recovery operations and replanning capability. Automated drilling fault detection and recovery allowed field drilling operations to both safe the rover-based drilling system and to efficiently continue field drilling operations after responding appropriately to downhole faults and changes in strata and materials encountered. In September 2019 the integrated ARADS rover/drill/instruments were deployed to an area of the Atacama Desert near Estacion Yungay, a dry ponded area (24.1S, 70.1W) that had briefly held water after a rare (decade-scale) rain event in 2017. This site had not been extensively studied or ground-truthed previously – so there was no a priori knowledge of what might be detected, and at what depth, by the rover and its instruments. Discovery was possible, backed up by subsequent manual sampling and study of interesting locations. Daily instrument results, following daily drilling and sampling operations, were summarized into quick- look data reports which were then discussed the following morning by the remote science team at NASA, who then formulated the next day’s science goals and tactical objectives. A tactical team at NASA then generated commands, parameters and goals for the rover, drill and instruments. This daily operational set was then (after some delay) relayed to the rover and instruments in Chile via a portable satellite ground station and commercial Ku-band data service.

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