Reducing Risk and Complexity of Rover and Robotic Operations on Mars

Mellon, Russel R.
Director of Research and Development, Equinox Interscience, Inc., 6420 S. Quebec St., Ste E, Englewood, CO 80111
mailto:anchorrt@performancesw.com
Meyer, Thomas R.

In: Proceedings of The Founding Convention of the Mars Society, edited by Zubrin, RM, and Zubrin, M. Univelt, Incorporated. (1998)

The presentation offers a perspective on utilization of the Mars Raptor Reconnaissance System and its variations to reduce the risk and complexity of rover and robotic operations on Mars.

The presentation will enhance the participants understanding of issues and concerns regarding robotic and rover operations on Mars. We will present a mission risk mitigation approach to the current Lander/Rover operations for improving probability of success. This approach utilizes the Mars Raptor system that allows a least time/safest path-vs.-minimum distance path for rover/robot operations. The system is a reconnaissance approach with compact, lightweight optical sensors, CCD focal planes, and High-Density Interconnect (HDI) electronics.

The presentation content will consider: 1) Rover/Robot requirements and how they play with lander/orbiter requirements 2) Reconnaissance methods 3) Reconnaissance deployment scenarios 4) Compact optical designs 5) Bird/Nest data exchanges 6) Data utilization and operations decision making

Keywords

Robotic Exploration