Conceptual design of a 1979 Mars rover
The results of a conceptual design study of a Mars roving vehicle mission in 1979 are presented. Descriptions of the mission, science objectives, vehicle configuration and subsystems are included. Mission analysis parameters required to define a mission profile and sequence of events are presented. Science operations including the deployment of small, self-contained, long-lived meteorology and/or seismology stations are considered. The vehicle system is described by the functional requirements, vehicle configuration and weight and power allocations. Following the system description, seven subsystems on board the vehicle are considered. The characteristics and capabilities of each are described. Mission operations also were evaluated to the degree necessary to identify the areas of foremost concern. INTRODUCTION In future decades, the space science community will be provided with unique and challenging opportunities to explore the solar system by spacecraft of increased complexity, longer lifetime and more autonomy. A candidate mission is an automated traverse on Mars. Roving vehicles capable of extended operation on the surface, and sufficiently mobile to traverse regions remote from acceptable landing sites, would offer scientists the opportunity to explore large regions of the planetary surface. The value of landed spacecraft in performing scientific explorations and surveying future landing sites for manned vehicles was demonstrated by the Surveyor lunar missions. Surveyor, a "fixedpoint" surface spacecraft, collected composition and topographic data within local areas about the landing sites. In many cases, however, areas of scientific interest are likely to be in regions remote from acceptable spacecraft landing sites, since acceptable landing sites are chosen from topographic as well as scientific criteria. Furthermore, many scientifically interesting areas are likely to exist on the Martian surface and exploration of all of these areas by immobile surface spacecraft is clearly impractical. Given the premise that long Martian surface distances are to be explored, the automated surface roving vehicle appears to be a prime means for achieving these exploration goals. To focus and bound this conceptual design study, several assumptions were defined. These limited the depth of effort in certain areas and eliminated some of the tradeoffs that otherwise could have been performed. Throughout the study these assumptions were adhered to, and interpretation of the results should include the effect of these study assumptions. The key assumptions made were: (a) Six-wheeled vehicle concept The six-wheeled vehicle concept has been shown by several previous studies(l» 2, 3) to provide the "best" mobility capability and the "best" overall design for operation on unknown surfaces. (b) Direct-link communications with earth A relay communications link with an orbiting vehicle was not considered, although relay communications may be practical and desirable in some instances. (c) One routine science operation performed per day Some science data should be collected during each day of the mission. This includes possibly imaging, meteorology, etc. , but does not always include operation of the lifedetection experiments. (d) No locomotion during the Martian night Since no communications with the earth can be effected with a direct link during the Martian night, the risk to the safety of the vehicle becomes quite high. This paper presents the results of one phase of research carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, ;Galifornia Institute of Technology, under Contract No. NAS 7-100, sponsored by the National Aeronautics ,and Space Administration.
Integrated optimization of planetary rover layout and exploration routes
ABSTRACT This article introduces an optimization framework for the integrated design of a planetary surface rover and its exploration route that is applicable to the initial phase of a planetary exploration campaign composed of multiple surface missions. The scientific capability and the mobility of a rover are modelled as functions of the science weight fraction, a key parameter characterizing the rover. The proposed problem is formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear program that maximizes the sum of profits obtained through a planetary surface exploration mission by simultaneously determining the science weight fraction of the rover, the sites to visit and their visiting sequences under resource consumption constraints imposed on each route and collectively on a mission. A solution procedure for the proposed problem composed of two loops (the outer loop and the inner loop) is developed. The results of test cases demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed framework are presented.
A pathfinding algorithm for an autonomous roving vehicle
Routing algorithm for computer controlled unmanned autonomous roving vehicle on Martian surface