A Mission Control Architecture is presented for a Robotic Lunar Sample Return Mission which builds upon the experience of the landed missions of the NASA Mars Exploration Program. This architecture consists of four separate processes working in parallel at Mission Control and achieving buy-in for plans sequentially instead of simultaneously from all members of the team. These four processes were: Science Processing, Science Interpretation, Planning and Mission Evaluation. Science Processing was responsible for creating products from data downlinked from the field and is organized by instrument. Science Interpretation was responsible for determining whether or not science goals are being met and what measurements need to be taken to satisfy these goals. The Planning process, responsible for scheduling and sequencing observations, and the Evaluation process that fostered inter-process communications, reporting and documentation assisted these processes. This organization is advantageous for its flexibility as shown by the ability of the structure to produce plans for the rover every two hours, for the rapidity with which Mission Control team members may be trained and for the relatively small size of each individual team. This architecture was tested in an analogue mission to the Sudbury impact structure from June 6-17, 2011. A rover was used which was capable of developing a network of locations that could be revisited using a teach and repeat method. This allowed the science team to process several different outcrops in parallel, downselecting at each stage to ensure that the samples selected for caching were the most representative of the site. Over the course of 10 days, 18 rock samples were collected from 5 different outcrops, 182 individual field activities -such as roving or acquiring an image mosaic or other data product -were completed within 43 command cycles, and the rover travelled over 2,200 m. Data transfer from communications passes were filled to 74%. Sample triage was simulated to allow down-selection to 1kg of material for return to Earth.
Part of the requirements of the future Constellation program is to optimize lunar surface operations and reduce hazards to astronauts. Toward this end, many robotic platforms, rovers in specific, are being sought to carry out a multitude of missions involving potential Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) sites survey, surface reconnaissance, path planning and obstacle detection and classification. 3D imaging lidar technology provides an enabling capability that allows fast, accurate and detailed collection of threedimensional information about the rover's environment. The lidar images the region of interest by scanning a laser beam and measuring the pulse time-of-flight and the bearing. The accumulated set of laser ranges and bearings constitutes the three-dimensional image.As part of the ongoing NASA Ames research center activities in lunar robotics, the utility of 3D imaging lidar was evaluated by testing Optech's ILRIS-3D lidar on board the K-10 Red rover during the recent Human -Robotics Systems (HRS) field trails in Lake Moses, WA. This paper examines the results of the ILRIS-3D trials, presents the data obtained and discusses its application in lunar surface robotic surveying and scouting.
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