Robotic Exploration Of The Solar System

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Robotic Exploration Of The Solar System
Dave Lavery October 17, 2002
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NASAs Strategy

• Answer six fundamental questions
• How did the universe evolve?
• Does life exist elsewhere?
• Can we use knowledge of the Solar System to
  improve quality of life on Earth?
• How do we apply fundamental knowledge to the
  establishment of permanent human presence in
  space?
• How can we enable revolutionary technological
  advances to air and space travel?
• What technologies must we develop to enable our
  research agenda?

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Space Telerobotics Grand Challenges

• Robotic planetary field geology system for
  opportunistic adaptive exploration and
  investigation on planetary surfaces - including
  surface sample acquisition, analysis and
  preservation, nanorobotic (10-9 meter) sample
  manipulation, handling and processing for mineral
  and organic analysis, deep (gt 1 km) subsurface
  scientific data and sample extraction, and
  autonomous synthesis of integrated conclusions
  from different robotically acquired scientific
  data types
• Self-sustaining (gt5 years) rovers capable of
  global scale (gt 5000 km) navigation and movement
  across rugged terrain, with autonomously
  coordinated planetary surface, subsurface, and
  atmospheric multi-robot operations.
• Affordable, coordinated robots that can deploy,
  assemble, and construct laboratories, habitats
  and facilities in orbit and on planetary
  surfaces.
• Development of a space robot EVA
  associate/surrogate with human-in-a-space-suit
  perception and dexterity performance (with lt50
  life cycle cost of current ISS baseline).
• Development of a lightweight (lt1Kg), low-cost
  (lt500K), highly autonomous EVA robotic camera
  which can operationally "roam" and station-keep
  about orbiting platforms at a separation distance
  of one inch to one mile, which is within
  constrained mass and volume margins such that it
  can be carried as contingency equipment on an
  interplanetary spacecraft for emergency
  observations and limited dexterity.

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On-Orbit Systems
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Charlotte
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ISS Mobile Servicing System
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Ranger
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Exoskeleton Systems
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Orbital Servicing Systems
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Planetary Exploration Technology
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Scratching the Surface of Planetary Exploration
Closest approach for NASA planetary missions
Altitude (in Km)
1000000
Voyager 2
Voyager 2
Voyager 1
Pioneer 10
Voyager 1
Voyager 2
Pioneer 11
Mariner 2
Cassini
10000
Voyager 2
Mariner 4
Mariner 5
Pioneer
P-K-E?
Mariner 10
Mariner 67
Magellan
Mariner 9
Messenger
EuropaOrbiter
MGS
Galileo
Mars 2001
NEAR
ISEE/ICE
100
Stardust
DS-1
Smart Lander
Mars Express
Europa Lander?
MSR?
0
MER 2003
Viking 12
Pathfinder
Deep Impact
CNSR?
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
2015
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Robby The Robot
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Volcanic Firewalker
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Marsokhod
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Nomad Explores The Antarctic
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Drilling For Life
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Mars Missions
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Mars Pathfinder Rover

• Built as a TECHNOLOGY EXPERIMENT to validate
  robotic technologies and systems for planetary
  exploration
• July 4, 1997 - Independence Day - Mars Pathfinder
  landing
• July 5, 1997 - Sojourner deployed and operational
• Sojourner performance (Sol 1-83)
• 234 commanded movements
• 104 meters traversed
• 17 APXS deployments
• 534 images taken
• 34 color images retrieved
• 44 stereo images collected
• 2 full soil mechanics experiments
• 23 short soil mechanics performed
• 245Mb data returned
• thermal, power and comm subsystem
  characterization
• Impact robotic rovers are now baselined as a
  standard component of all planned planetary
  surface explorations

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The Future Of Mars Exploration
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2003 Twin Mars Exploration Rovers
Rover B Launch June 27, 2003 Landing January
25, 2004
Rover A Launch May 30, 2003 Landing January 4,
2004
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Mars Smart Lander/Mobile Science Lab

• State of the art in-situ science and life
  inference experiments
• Incorporate radioisotope power source for
  long-range, long-duration science
• Validate rover design and long-life operations
  for future surface missions

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Mars Sample Returns

• Well-selected samples to meet geologic and
  biological potential science objectives

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Robots For The Outer Planets
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Black Smoker Explorer
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Vostok Penetrator
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Nano-Rover
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Robo-Ants
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Future Human Exploration and Science
Just as at the moon where we first sent robotic
explorers, then humans...
We hope that some day humans will explore the
surface of Mars.
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Thank You!
Dave Lavery NASA Headquarters