Designing remote operations strategies to optimize science mission goals: Lessons learned from the Moon Mars Analog Mission Activities Mauna Kea 2012 field test

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe Moon Mars Analog Mission Activities Mauna Kea 2012 (MMAMA 2012) field campaign aimed to assess how effectively an integrated science and engineering rover team operating on a 24-h planning cycle facilitates high-fidelity science products. The science driver of this field campaign was to determine the origin of a glacially-derived deposit: was the deposit the result of (1) glacial outwash from meltwater; or (2) the result of an ice dam breach at the head of the valley?Lessons learned from MMAMA 2012 science operations include: (1) current rover science operations scenarios tested in this environment provide adequate data to yield accurate derivative products such as geologic maps; (2) instrumentation should be selected based on both engineering and science goals; and chosen during, rather than after, mission definition; and (3) paralleling the tactical and strategic science processes provides significant efficiencies that impact science return. The MER-model concept of operations utilized, in which rover operators were sufficiently facile with science intent to alter traverse and sampling plans during plan execution, increased science efficiency, gave the Science Backroom time to develop mature hypotheses and science rationales, and partially alleviated the problem of data flow being greater than the processing speed of the scientists. & 2015 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of IAA. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Is a Linear or a Walkabout Protocol More Efficient When Using a Rover to Choose Biologically Relevant Samples in a Small Region of Interest?

“…Although this method has shown success when the goal is to test technology (e.g., Zacny et al, 2011;Mueller et al, 2013;Sanders and Larson, 2015), it has proven more difficult when testing the decision-making process of conducting science remotely. This difficulty stems from the dependence on the use of technology that, if not performing nominally, causes breaks in the science decision-making process that compromise test fidelity for science operations (Cohen, 2012;Eppler et al, 2013;Graham et al, 2015;Yingst et al, 2015). The GeoHeuristic Operational Strategies (GHOST) field tests are designed to isolate and test science-driven landed and rover operations scenarios, to determine best practices for maximizing the science return from planetary missions.…”

Earth as a Tool for Astrobiology—A European Perspective

“…They have taken place in various locations in the United States, including Mauna Kea (Hawaii) (ten Kate et al 2013), and Black Point Lava Flow (Arizona), which were selected based on their physical resemblance to the lunar and Martian surface. The scope of these campaigns includes testing single space suit configurations and multi-day integrated mission scenarios (Ross et al 2013), as well as integrating science into the technologydriven scenarios and communication between scientists and engineers (Yingst et al 2015). The NEEMO campaigns are technology and mission oriented, and use the Aquarius Station, which provide a convincing analogue for space exploration (Thirsk et al 2007) (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NEEMO/).…”

Minerva: User-centered science operations software capability for future human exploration

“…Between EVAs, the scientist would update the relevant sections of this science matrix to help track and maintain awareness of overall progress towards each research question. As experienced in previous scientific field operations, the detection and quantification of scientific research progress is a highly iterative process [5,24]. Therefore, quantifying successful research progress can be difficult.…”