FIDOField Integrated Design and Operations Rover

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FIDO-Field Integrated Design and Operations Rover

• Prototype for 2003/2005 Mars Rovers and Athena
  Payload
• Designed to simulate Mars rover operations
• Deployed in Silver Lake, CA, area April 1999

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FIDO Rover Capabilities
Mast with Pancam, Navcam, IR Point Spectrometer
Arm with Mössbauer Spectrometer, color
microscopic imager
Hazard Cams
Panel-mounted radiometric calibration targets
Mini-Corer and Cache
Belly Cameras
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Silver Lake Descent Image and FIDO Traverses
Break-out channel traverses
Sampling
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FIDO Field Trial Accomplishments

• Remote commanding by Core Operations Team (COT)
  using Web Interface for Telescience (WITS)
• Approximately one gigabyte of data acquired,
  including Presidential Pan, near-simultaneous
  image and IR spectral data
• Traversed over 300 meters using active hazard
  avoidance techniques based on Navcam planning and
  Hazcam stereo models
• Mini-Corer acquired dolomite and meta-diorite
  rock cores

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FIDO Field Trial Accomplishments

• Several overnight Mössbauer measurements obtained
  using FIDO/arm in trailer
• Numerous Raman Spectra of rocks and soils
  obtained in the RV using UAB PIDDP Raman
  Spectrometer
• Rover controlled by high school science teams
  from Los Angeles, Phoenix, Ithaca, St. Louis as
  pilot educational activity called LAPIS

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Mini-Corer Dolomite Drilling Operations
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Belly Camera View of Mini-Corer Drilling
Mini-Corer
dolomite
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Pancam Image of Calibration Target
25-April-99 151502 PDT 650 nm band
Cal target
alluvium
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Target-Based Pancam Calibrations
0 degpost 90 deg shadow
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Target-Based Pancam Calibrations
In sun
Linear response to radiance on sensor
In shade
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Exploration of Break-Out Channel
Channel wall, meta-diorite, overlain with
caliche-cemented conglomerate
Meta-diorite boulder observed with Navcam,
overlain with color-coded range contours
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WITS-Pancam View With IPS Pixels
Yellow circles are pixel locations for 1.3 to 2.5
micrometer IPS data
Caliche-cemented conglomerate Weathered
meta-diorite Talus
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Exploration of Break-Out Channel
RedIPS data, Mars Yard WhiteCalcite, lab
spectrum
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LAPIS-Student Led FIDO Mission
Students designed and implemented exploration
and discovery portion of FIDO Silver Lake Trials
Los Angeles field group takes a break
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FY 99 FIDO Enhancements

• Include gyroscope, accelerometer, and sun sensor
  data into telemetry for FIDO orientation and
  position as function of time
• Include differential GPS as tool for
  independently tracking FIDO position
• Generate stereo models for Pancam and Belly cam
  imaging systems
• Improved S/N, faster acquisition times, and
  remove instrument artifacts for Infrared Point
  Spectrometer

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FIDO FY99 Enhancements, Continued

• Fix Pancam banding and determine MTF of system
• Finish WITS implementation for arm deployment
• Add shielded container for Mössbauer Spectrometer
  head
• Improvements in Mini-Corer performance using
  yaw-pitch deployment
• Update telemetry files to include information
  necessary to generate SPICE files, particularly
  rover position and orientation and instrument
  translation and rotation information as a
  function of time

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FIDO Archiving and Analysis Plans

• Back to Silver Lake with improved Pancam and IPS
  to finish collection of high quality imaging and
  spectroscopy for break-out channel walls.
  Probably September 1999
• April mission results published on
  http//wufs.wustl.edu/rover
• Digital Video Disk (DVD) to be published with
  documentation, data, field data (e.g., video)
  documenting April tests. Spin off educational
  (LAPIS) CD-ROM. Probably September 1999
• Data analyses to help test procedures for ops
  analyses of Mars data, e.g., rock coatings

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FIDO-Global Lessons-Learned

• Orbital and descent data are crucial to providing
  regional geomorphic and geologic context
• Ancient fluvial and lacustrine environment of
  Silver Lake
• Strategic planning important to provide mission
  vision and objectives
• Divided mission into sampling and
  exploration/discovery modules that provided
  context and schedule drivers
• Tactical planning is equally important since
  events will not proceed as planned
• Lots of rain and high winds led to continual
  re-planning
• IPS hardware problems and the importance of
  on-site Raman Spectroscopy to determine dolomite,
  calcite, aragonite

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FIDO-Global Lessons-Learned

• Develop minimum success criteria to help in
  tactical planning
• Successful core acquisition was of paramount
  importance, followed by traversing through
  complex terrain and acquisition of remote sensing
  and analytical data
• Planning and quick look tools need to be
  interactive, intuitive and well understood by
  planners, maximizing visualization capabilities
  of humans
• Led to preference for use of Rover Control
  Workstation system adapted for APEX/Athena
  instrument commanding since this system will be
  developed for flight (with appropriate
  configuration control) and has superior
  visualization capabilities

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FIDO-Global Lessons-Learned

• Use common formats from beginning to end
• Will publish as PDS archive using SPICE kernels
  once we retrofit the data sets
• Document as you go to avoid information loss and
  degradation
• Loss of some sample context information because
  of the rapidity of the tests and the lack of
  documentation tools
• Move expeditiously to flight-like operational
  conditions, even though time scale is compressed.
• Move from WITS to RCW asap
• Adopt SPICE kernels as standards
• Time tags to delineate simulated uplink/downlink
  cycles

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FIDO-Paramount Lessons-Learned

• We can do the mission, including finding,
  sampling, and caching samples and then moving
  into an exploration and discovery mode!
• Practice makes perfect. We would not send
  astronauts to Mars without extensive training.
  Similarly we need to continue to practice field
  operations with increasingly flight-like
  operating conditions (timescale excluded)

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FIDO-Longer Term Enhancements

• June 2001 include Athena-like Raman Spectrometer
• Develop capability to command FIDO using Rover
  Control Workstation (RCW) system using command
  dictionary translator to and from FIDO and Athena

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Future Field Work

• One major blind field deployment per year for
  fy2000 and fy2001 with Core Operations Team (COT)
  sequestered off-site and remotely commanding FIDO
  to acquire and cache samples and to simulate
  exploration and discovery tasks
• Two to three deployments per year in arroyo at
  JPL to test systems and operational concepts,
  e.g., SPICE tests
• Monthly Mars Yard tests at JPL to test specific
  operational scenarios and procedures, e.g., test
  Athena operational scenarios