Simulations of Mars Rover Traverses
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Meteorites on Mars Observed with the Mars Exploration Rovers C
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 113, E06S22, doi:10.1029/2007JE002990, 2008 Meteorites on Mars observed with the Mars Exploration Rovers C. Schro¨der,1 D. S. Rodionov,2,3 T. J. McCoy,4 B. L. Jolliff,5 R. Gellert,6 L. R. Nittler,7 W. H. Farrand,8 J. R. Johnson,9 S. W. Ruff,10 J. W. Ashley,10 D. W. Mittlefehldt,1 K. E. Herkenhoff,9 I. Fleischer,2 A. F. C. Haldemann,11 G. Klingelho¨fer,2 D. W. Ming,1 R. V. Morris,1 P. A. de Souza Jr.,12 S. W. Squyres,13 C. Weitz,14 A. S. Yen,15 J. Zipfel,16 and T. Economou17 Received 14 August 2007; revised 9 November 2007; accepted 21 December 2007; published 18 April 2008. [1] Reduced weathering rates due to the lack of liquid water and significantly greater typical surface ages should result in a higher density of meteorites on the surface of Mars compared to Earth. Several meteorites were identified among the rocks investigated during Opportunity’s traverse across the sandy Meridiani plains. Heat Shield Rock is a IAB iron meteorite and has been officially recognized as ‘‘Meridiani Planum.’’ Barberton is olivine-rich and contains metallic Fe in the form of kamacite, suggesting a meteoritic origin. It is chemically most consistent with a mesosiderite silicate clast. Santa Catarina is a brecciated rock with a chemical and mineralogical composition similar to Barberton. Barberton, Santa Catarina, and cobbles adjacent to Santa Catarina may be part of a strewn field. Spirit observed two probable iron meteorites from its Winter Haven location in the Columbia Hills in Gusev Crater. -
The Journey to Mars: How Donna Shirley Broke Barriers for Women in Space Engineering
The Journey to Mars: How Donna Shirley Broke Barriers for Women in Space Engineering Laurel Mossman, Kate Schein, and Amelia Peoples Senior Division Group Documentary Word Count: 499 Our group chose the topic, Donna Shirley and her Mars rover, because of our connections and our interest level in not only science but strong, determined women. One of our group member’s mothers worked for a man under Ms. Shirley when she was developing the Mars rover. This provided us with a connection to Ms. Shirley, which then gave us the amazing opportunity to interview her. In addition, our group is interested in the philosophy of equality and we have continuously created documentaries that revolve around this idea. Every member of our group is a female, so we understand the struggles and discrimination that women face in an everyday setting and wanted to share the story of a female that faced these struggles but overcame them. Thus after conducting a great amount of research, we fell in love with Donna Shirley’s story. Lastly, it was an added benefit that Ms. Shirley is from Oklahoma, making her story important to our state. All of these components made this topic extremely appealing to us. We conducted our research using online articles, Donna Shirley’s autobiography, “Managing Martians”, news coverage from the launch day, and our interview with Donna Shirley. We started our research process by reading Shirley’s autobiography. This gave us insight into her college life, her time working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and what it was like being in charge of such a barrier-breaking mission. -
Mars, the Nearest Habitable World – a Comprehensive Program for Future Mars Exploration
Mars, the Nearest Habitable World – A Comprehensive Program for Future Mars Exploration Report by the NASA Mars Architecture Strategy Working Group (MASWG) November 2020 Front Cover: Artist Concepts Top (Artist concepts, left to right): Early Mars1; Molecules in Space2; Astronaut and Rover on Mars1; Exo-Planet System1. Bottom: Pillinger Point, Endeavour Crater, as imaged by the Opportunity rover1. Credits: 1NASA; 2Discovery Magazine Citation: Mars Architecture Strategy Working Group (MASWG), Jakosky, B. M., et al. (2020). Mars, the Nearest Habitable World—A Comprehensive Program for Future Mars Exploration. MASWG Members • Bruce Jakosky, University of Colorado (chair) • Richard Zurek, Mars Program Office, JPL (co-chair) • Shane Byrne, University of Arizona • Wendy Calvin, University of Nevada, Reno • Shannon Curry, University of California, Berkeley • Bethany Ehlmann, California Institute of Technology • Jennifer Eigenbrode, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center • Tori Hoehler, NASA/Ames Research Center • Briony Horgan, Purdue University • Scott Hubbard, Stanford University • Tom McCollom, University of Colorado • John Mustard, Brown University • Nathaniel Putzig, Planetary Science Institute • Michelle Rucker, NASA/JSC • Michael Wolff, Space Science Institute • Robin Wordsworth, Harvard University Ex Officio • Michael Meyer, NASA Headquarters ii Mars, the Nearest Habitable World October 2020 MASWG Table of Contents Mars, the Nearest Habitable World – A Comprehensive Program for Future Mars Exploration Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................... -
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Gets Balanced 21 April 2020
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover gets balanced 21 April 2020 minimize friction that could affect the accuracy of the results, the table's surface sits on a spherical air bearing that essentially levitates on a thin layer of nitrogen gas. To determine center of gravity relative to the rover's z-axis (which extends from the bottom of the rover through the top) and y-axis (from the rover's left to right side), the team slowly rotated the vehicle back and forth, calculating the imbalance in its mass distribution. NASA's Perseverance rover is moved during a test of its mass properties at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The image was taken on April 7, 2020. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech With 13 weeks to go before the launch period of NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover opens, final preparations of the spacecraft continue at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On April 8, the This image of the Perseverance Mars rover was taken at assembly, test and launch operations team NASA's Kennedy Space Center on April 7, 2020, during a completed a crucial mass properties test of the test of the vehicle's mass properties. Credit: NASA/JPL- rover. Caltech Precision mass properties measurements are essential to a safe landing on Mars because they help ensure that the spacecraft travels accurately Just as an auto mechanic places small weights on throughout its trip to the Red Planet—from launch a car tire's rim to bring it into balance, the through its entry, descent and landing. Perseverance team analyzed the data and then added 13.8 pounds (6.27 kilograms) to the rover's On April 6, the meticulous three-day process chassis. -
Discovery of Silica-Rich Deposits on Mars by the Spirit Rover
Ancient Aqueous Environments at Endeavour Crater, Mars Authors: R.E. Arvidson1, S.W. Squyres2, J.F. Bell III3, J. G. Catalano1, B.C. Clark4, L.S. Crumpler5, P.A. de Souza Jr.6, A.G. Fairén2, W.H. Farrand4, V.K. Fox1, R. Gellert7, A. Ghosh8, M.P. Golombek9, J.P. Grotzinger10, E. A. Guinness1, K. E. Herkenhoff11, B. L. Jolliff1, A. H. Knoll12, R. Li13, S.M. McLennan14,D. W. Ming15, D.W. Mittlefehldt15, J.M. Moore16, R. V. Morris15, S. L. Murchie17, T.J. Parker9, G. Paulsen18, J.W. Rice19, S.W. Ruff3, M. D. Smith20, M. J. Wolff4 Affiliations: 1 Dept. Earth and Planetary Sci., Washington University in Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA. 2 Dept. Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA. 3 School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. 4Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO 80301, USA. 5 New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, Albuquerque, NM 87104, USA. 6 CSIRO Computational Informatics, Hobart 7001 TAS, Australia. 7 Department of Physics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada. 8 Tharsis Inc., Gaithersburg MD 20877, USA. 9 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. 10 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. 11 U.S. Geological Survey, Astrogeology Science Center, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA. 12 Botanical Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138, USA. 13 Dept. of Civil & Env. Eng. & Geodetic Science, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. 14 Dept. of Geosciences, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. -
THE MARS 2020 ROVER ENGINEERING CAMERAS. J. N. Maki1, C
51st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2020) 2663.pdf THE MARS 2020 ROVER ENGINEERING CAMERAS. J. N. Maki1, C. M. McKinney1, R. G. Willson1, R. G. Sellar1, D. S. Copley-Woods1, M. Valvo1, T. Goodsall1, J. McGuire1, K. Singh1, T. E. Litwin1, R. G. Deen1, A. Cul- ver1, N. Ruoff1, D. Petrizzo1, 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, [email protected]). Introduction: The Mars 2020 Rover is equipped pairs (the Cachecam, a monoscopic camera, is an ex- with a neXt-generation engineering camera imaging ception). The Mars 2020 engineering cameras are system that represents a significant upgrade over the packaged into a single, compact camera head (see fig- previous Navcam/Hazcam cameras flown on MER and ure 1). MSL [1,2]. The Mars 2020 engineering cameras ac- quire color images with wider fields of view and high- er angular/spatial resolution than previous rover engi- neering cameras. Additionally, the Mars 2020 rover will carry a new camera type dedicated to sample op- erations: the Cachecam. History: The previous generation of Navcams and Hazcams, known collectively as the engineering cam- eras, were designed in the early 2000s as part of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) program. A total of Figure 1. Flight Navcam (left), Flight Hazcam (middle), 36 individual MER-style cameras have flown to Mars and flight Cachecam (right). The Cachecam optical assem- on five separate NASA spacecraft (3 rovers and 2 bly includes an illuminator and fold mirror. landers) [1-6]. The MER/MSL cameras were built in two separate production runs: the original MER run Each of the Mars 2020 engineering cameras utilize a (2003) and a second, build-to-print run for the Mars 20 megapixel OnSemi (CMOSIS) CMOS sensor Science Laboratory (MSL) mission in 2008. -
Long-Range Rovers for Mars Exploration and Sample Return
2001-01-2138 Long-Range Rovers for Mars Exploration and Sample Return Joe C. Parrish NASA Headquarters ABSTRACT This paper discusses long-range rovers to be flown as part of NASA’s newly reformulated Mars Exploration Program (MEP). These rovers are currently scheduled for launch first in 2007 as part of a joint science and technology mission, and then again in 2011 as part of a planned Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. These rovers are characterized by substantially longer range capability than their predecessors in the 1997 Mars Pathfinder and 2003 Mars Exploration Rover (MER) missions. Topics addressed in this paper include the rover mission objectives, key design features, and Figure 1: Rover Size Comparison (Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration technologies. Rover, ’07 Smart Lander/Mobile Laboratory) INTRODUCTION NASA is leading a multinational program to explore above, below, and on the surface of Mars. A new The first of these rovers, the Smart Lander/Mobile architecture for the Mars Exploration Program has Laboratory (SLML) is scheduled for launch in 2007. The recently been announced [1], and it incorporates a current program baseline is to use this mission as a joint number of missions through the rest of this decade and science and technology mission that will contribute into the next. Among those missions are ambitious plans directly toward sample return missions planned for the to land rovers on the surface of Mars, with several turn of the decade. These sample return missions may purposes: (1) perform scientific explorations of the involve a rover of almost identical architecture to the surface; (2) demonstrate critical technologies for 2007 rover, except for the need to cache samples and collection, caching, and return of samples to Earth; (3) support their delivery into orbit for subsequent return to evaluate the suitability of the planet for potential manned Earth. -
GRAIL Twins Toast New Year from Lunar Orbit
Jet JANUARY Propulsion 2012 Laboratory VOLUME 42 NUMBER 1 GRAIL twins toast new year from Three-month ‘formation flying’ mission will By Mark Whalen lunar orbit study the moon from crust to core Above: The GRAIL team celebrates with cake and apple cider. Right: Celebrating said. “So it does take a lot of planning, a lot of test- the other spacecraft will accelerate towards that moun- GRAIL-A’s Jan. 1 lunar orbit insertion are, from left, Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal ing and then a lot of small maneuvers in order to get tain to measure it. The change in the distance between investigator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Charles Elachi, JPL director; ready to set up to get into this big maneuver when we the two is noted, from which gravity can be inferred. Jim Green, NASA director of planetary science. go into orbit around the moon.” One of the things that make GRAIL unique, Hoffman JPL’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) A series of engine burns is planned to circularize said, is that it’s the first formation flying of two spacecraft mission celebrated the new year with successful main the twins’ orbit, reducing their orbital period to a little around any body other than Earth. “That’s one of the engine burns to place its twin spacecraft in a perfectly more than two hours before beginning the mission’s biggest challenges we have, and it’s what makes this an synchronized orbit around the moon. 82-day science phase. “If these all go as planned, we exciting mission,” he said. -
Educator's Guide
EDUCATOR’S GUIDE ABOUT THE FILM Dear Educator, “ROVING MARS”is an exciting adventure that This movie details the development of Spirit and follows the journey of NASA’s Mars Exploration Opportunity from their assembly through their Rovers through the eyes of scientists and engineers fantastic discoveries, discoveries that have set the at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Steve Squyres, pace for a whole new era of Mars exploration: from the lead science investigator from Cornell University. the search for habitats to the search for past or present Their collective dream of Mars exploration came life… and maybe even to human exploration one day. true when two rovers landed on Mars and began Having lasted many times longer than their original their scientific quest to understand whether Mars plan of 90 Martian days (sols), Spirit and Opportunity ever could have been a habitat for life. have confirmed that water persisted on Mars, and Since the 1960s, when humans began sending the that a Martian habitat for life is a possibility. While first tentative interplanetary probes out into the solar they continue their studies, what lies ahead are system, two-thirds of all missions to Mars have NASA missions that not only “follow the water” on failed. The technical challenges are tremendous: Mars, but also “follow the carbon,” a building block building robots that can withstand the tremendous of life. In the next decade, precision landers and shaking of launch; six months in the deep cold of rovers may even search for evidence of life itself, space; a hurtling descent through the atmosphere either signs of past microbial life in the rock record (going from 10,000 miles per hour to 0 in only six or signs of past or present life where reserves of minutes!); bouncing as high as a three-story building water ice lie beneath the Martian surface today. -
NUCLEAR SAFETY LAUNCH APPROVAL: MULTI-MISSION LESSONS LEARNED Yale Chang the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
ANS NETS 2018 – Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space Las Vegas, NV, February 26 – March 1, 2018, on CD-ROM, American Nuclear Society, LaGrange Park, IL (2018) NUCLEAR SAFETY LAUNCH APPROVAL: MULTI-MISSION LESSONS LEARNED Yale Chang The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd, Laurel, MD 20723 240-228-5724; [email protected] Launching a NASA radioisotope power system (RPS) trajectory to Saturn used a Venus-Venus-Earth-Jupiter mission requires compliance with two Federal mandates: Gravity Assist (VVEJGA) maneuver, where the Earth the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) Gravity Assist (EGA) flyby was the primary nuclear safety and launch approval (LA), as directed by Presidential focus of NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Directive/National Security Council Memorandum 25. Cassini Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel Nuclear safety launch approval lessons learned from (INSRP), and the public alike. A solid propellant fire test multiple NASA RPS missions, one Russian RPS mission, campaign addressed the MPF finding and led in part to two non-RPS launch accidents, and several solid the retrofit solid propellant breakup systems (BUSs) propellant fire test campaigns since 1996 are shown to designed and carried by MER-A and MER-B spacecraft have contributed to an ever-growing body of knowledge. and the deployment of plutonium detectors in the launch The launch accidents can be viewed as “unplanned area for PNH. The PNH mission decreased the calendar experiments” that provided real-world data. Lessons length of the NEPA/LA processes to less than 4 years by learned from the nuclear safety launch approval effort of incorporating lessons learned from previous missions and each mission or launch accident, and how they were tests in its spacecraft and mission designs and their applied to improve the NEPA/LA processes and nuclear NEPA/LA processes. -
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Opportunity Observations Of
PUBLICATIONS Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets RESEARCH ARTICLE Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Opportunity 10.1002/2014JE004686 observations of the Burns formation: Crater Key Point: hopping at Meridiani Planum • Hydrated Mg and Ca sulfate Burns formation minerals mapped with MRO R. E. Arvidson1, J. F. Bell III2, J. G. Catalano1, B. C. Clark3, V. K. Fox1, R. Gellert4, J. P. Grotzinger5, and MER data E. A. Guinness1, K. E. Herkenhoff6, A. H. Knoll7, M. G. A. Lapotre5, S. M. McLennan8, D. W. Ming9, R. V. Morris9, S. L. Murchie10, K. E. Powell1, M. D. Smith11, S. W. Squyres12, M. J. Wolff3, and J. J. Wray13 1 2 Correspondence to: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, School of Earth and Space R. E. Arvidson, Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA, 3Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 4Department of [email protected] Physics, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, 5Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA, 6U.S. Geological Survey, Astrogeology Science Center, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, 7 8 Citation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Department Arvidson, R. E., et al. (2015), Mars of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA, 9NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA, Reconnaissance Orbiter and Opportunity 10Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Maryland, USA, 11NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, observations of the Burns formation: Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, 12Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, 13School of Earth and Crater hopping at Meridiani Planum, J. -
Operation and Performance of the Mars Exploration Rover Imaging System on the Martian Surface
Operation and Performance of the Mars Exploration Rover Imaging System on the Martian Surface Justin N. Maki Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA USA [email protected] Todd Litwin, Mark Schwochert Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA USA Ken Herkenhoff United States Geological Survey Flagstaff, AZ USA Abstract - The Imaging System on the Mars Exploration Rovers has successfully operated on the surface of Mars for over one Earth year. The acquisition of hundreds of panoramas and tens of thousands of stereo pairs has enabled the rovers to explore Mars at a level of detail unprecedented in the history of space exploration. In addition to providing scientific value, the images also play a key role in the daily tactical operation of the rovers. The mobile nature of the MER surface mission requires extensive use of the imaging system for traverse planning, rover localization, remote sensing instrument targeting, and robotic arm placement. Each of these activity types requires a different set of data compression rates, surface Figure 1. The Mars Exploration Spirit Rover, as viewed by coverage, and image acquisition strategies. An overview the Navcam shortly after lander egress early in the mission. of the surface imaging activities is provided, along with a presents an overview of the operation and performance of summary of the image data acquired to date. the MER Imaging System. Keywords: Imaging system, cameras, rovers, Mars, 1.2 Imaging System Design operations. The MER cameras are classified into five types: Descent cameras, Navigation cameras (Navcam), Hazard Avoidance 1 Introduction cameras (Hazcam), Panoramic cameras (Pancam), and Microscopic Imager (MI) cameras.