| 2002
News Releases
Rehearsal
Readies Scientists for NASA's Next Mars Landing
August
19, 2002
With less than a year to go before the launch of NASA's Mars Exploration
Rover mission, scientists have spent the last few weeks at a high-tech
summer camp, rehearsing their roles for when the spacecraft take center
stage.
"The purpose of this test is really to teach the science team how to remotely
conduct field geology using a rover, rather than to test the rover hardware,"
said Dr. John Callas, science manager for the Mars Exploration Rover mission
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We sent one of our
engineering development rovers out to a distant, undisclosed desert location,
with the science team back at JPL planning the operations and sending commands,
just as they'll do when the actual rovers are on Mars."
The 10-day blind test, which ran from Aug. 10 to 19, used the Field Integrated
Design Operations testbed, called Fido, which is similar in size and capability
to the Mars Exploration Rovers. Although important differences exist, the
similarities are great enough that the same types of challenges exist in
commanding these rovers in complex realistic terrain as are expected for
the rovers on Mars.
"The scientific instruments on this test rover are similar to the Athena
science payload that will be carried by the Mars Exploration Rovers," said
Dr. Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover
mission at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. "We're using the test rover
now to learn how to do good field geology with a robot. When we get to
real Mars rover operations in 2004, we'll be able to use everything we're
learning now to maximize our science return."
"The test rover has received and executed daily commands via satellite
communications between JPL and the remote desert field site. Each day,
they have sent images and science data to JPL that reveal properties of
the
desert geology," said Dr. Eddie Tunstel, the rover's lead engineer at JPL.
The Mars Exploration Rovers will be launched in May and June 2003. Upon
their arrival at Mars in January 2004, they will spend at least three months
conducting surface operations, exploring Mars for evidence of past water
interaction with the surface and looking for other clues to the planet's
past.
The science team of more than 60 scientists from around the world will
tell the rovers what to do and where to go from the mission control room
at JPL. This month's test is one of several training operations that are
planned before landing.
The rovers are currently being built at JPL and will be shipped to the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida early next year to begin preparations for
launch. Shortly before the launch, NASA will select the landing sites.
More information about the rover mission is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/mars03rovers.pdf
or http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer.
A description of the Fido rover is available at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/fido
or http://fido.jpl.nasa.gov/.
More information about the Mars Exploration Program is available at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/.
The Mars Exploration Rover mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Office
of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Contacts:
JPL/Mary Hardin (818) 354-0344
2002-163 |
