Analog Sites for Mars Missions II (2013) 4041.pdf

THE JUNO II ROVER AS AN EXPLORATION TEST BED FOR MARS MISSIONS, SOLO AND HUMAN ASSISTED . J. C. Hamilton1, P. Visscher2 and C. B. Andersen1, 1Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) and Univ of Hawaii, Hilo, 200 West Kawili St., Hilo Hawaii 96720 ([email protected]), 2Ontario Drive & Gear / Argo, 220 Bergey Court, New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada,

Introduction: Hawaii Island, the largest island of the Hawaiian archeplago, has been noted as a high- fidelity analog testing site for Lunar and Mars re- search. This has been “ground-truthed” from Mars Science Laboratory CHEMIN1 announced the close similarity between Mars soils and the tephra materials on the lower slopes of Mauna Kea2 (where the CheMin instrument was field tested at PISCES in 2008). The 2012 Joint NASA/CSA Analog Field test successfully operated the JUNO II rover at two analog sites3. Analog Sites: Test site 1 was at 11,500 feet eleva- tion on the south slope of Mauna Kea volcano near the terminus of the ancient glaciers in an area dubbed “Apollo Valley”. Varied loose rock and lava outcrops along with slope variability proved an operational chal- lenge. Test site 2 was at 9,500 feet elevation with more gentle slopes with a deeper loose tephra more similar to dusty open plains and dune terrain.

Traction testing: Traverses across each of these sites were performed with mission simulation objectives and waypoints, along with path selection algorithms.

References: [1] Vaniman, D. et.al. (2013), Geophysical Researhc Abstracts, Vol. 15, EGU2013-6272, [2] BBC News, , 31-Oct-2012, [3] Graham, L.D. et. al. (2012) IEEE Aerospace Conference; Big Sky, MT; 2-9 Mar. 2013 [4] Visscher, P. (2013) PTMSS