JASON VI Home Page
Hawaii Volcano Observatory -- Kilauea, Hawaii
Today saw the start of the Mars phase of planetary rover science simulations involving the Marsokhod rover at the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. The team of planetary scientists located at NASA Ames Research Center successfully commanded the vehicle through a pre-planned 100 meter traverse along the southwest rift zone above the main caldera during six hours of continous operation. They employed single frame images generated by a pair of mast-mounted stereographic cameras, an arm-mounted camera and an extremely high-resolution Kodak 420 Digital Camera System located on the forward pallet. Concurrently, the on-site engineering team monitored the rover's operation and maintained the network communications link with the mainland.
Among the challenges for the off-site science team is determining where they are with respect to local volcanic features. Using guidelines established by Dr. Ron Greeley, they are working from aerial and satellite photos of Kilauea that represent the type of images that are expected to be available for future lunar and Mars landing missions.
The morning started with favorable, partly cloudy conditions above the volcano. By 1 p.m., local time, the weather at the site had deteriorated significantly and the decision was made to suspend activities for the day before the nominal 3 p.m. shut down time. The six hours of operations exceeded the target goal of four hours of full-up science-driven ops per day. The on-site team also operated the vehicle for an hour at the end of the day at the HVO for a public demonstration.
The science team at Ames is now reviewing the results, while NASA, McDonnell Douglas and EDS engineers are proceeding with adjustments to the rover and associated support equipment in the Hawaii Volcano Observatory tower that is serving as the on-site mission ops center. In particular, they are considering modifications to the rover antenna superstructure that could improve the data through-put to the Ku-band uplink station at HVO, as well as an improved power management plan. Additionally, they are refining parameters that should improve the accuracy of state vector estimates and calculations, while also finishing software that will enable the use of the Marsokhod's MDA-developed manipulator arm.
Assuming that the weather remains favorable, the Mars science tests will continue tomorrow (Tuesday) and Wednesday, from 7 a.m to 3 p.m. (Hawaii time). Then, on Thursday through Saturday, the teams at Ames and Kilauea will conduct lunar science simulations under the direction of Dr. Jeff Taylor of the University of Hawaii. These will utilize the real-time stereo video imaging capabilities that have been installed on the Marsokhod (by contrast, in Mars mode, the science team has access only to single-frame pictures from the various imaging instruments on the rover).
The success of today's tests have confirmed the merit of the joint NASA-McDonnell Douglas-Lavochkin-VNIITransMash research effort to develop next-generation rovers for exploring the Moon and Mars. Feedback from the science team is already proving useful in identifying future improvements. Furthermore, they also are helping prepare for the rover's deployment in the upcoming JASON Foundation for Education's JASON VI Expedition, which is scheduled to start on 27 February.
JASON Project homepage || Teachers' Guide || Students' Corner || Search
Gene Carl
Feldman
(gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov)
(301) 286-9428
Todd Carlo Viola,
JASON Foundation for Education
(todd@jason.org)