NASA Desert RATS 2010: Preliminary results for science operations conducted in the San Francisco Volcanic Field, Arizona

Abstract

Introduction:There is now a strong consensus in the United States that the next step in human spaceflight is to travel beyond low-earth orbit [1]. The particular destinations, and the order in which they are explored are not as importnat as the overall goals of the human spaceflight program. The Moon and Mars have long been considered as important stepping-stones or waypoints for the expansion of human civilization beyond the Earth [2]. The Moon is the closest planetary body and possesses numerous natural resources to enable sustainable human spaceflight activities in cislunar space and at Mars, our ultimate destination in the inner Solar System.The National Aeronautics and Space Administartion (NASA) is working with international partners to develop the space architectures and mission plans necessary for human spaceflight beyond earth orbit. These mission plans include the exploration of planetary surfaces with significant gravity fields. The Apollo missions to the Moon demonstrated conclusvely that surface mobility is a key asset that improves the efficiency of human explorers on a planetary surface [3].NASA Desert RATS: NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) is a multi-year series tests of hardware and operations carried out annually in the high desert of Arizona. Conducted since 1998, these activities are designed to exercise planetary surface hardware and operations in relatively harsh climatic conditions where long-distance, multi-day roving is achievable [4]. Desert RATS 2010 tested two crewed rover concepts, designed as first generation prototypes of small pressurized vehicles. Each rover provided the internal volume necessary for two crewmembers to live and work for periods ≥14 days, as well as allowing for extravehicular EVAs through the use of rear-mounted suit ports. The 2010 test was designed to simulate geologic science traverses over a 14-day period through a terrane of cinder cones, lava flows and underlying sedimentary units in the San Francisco Volcanic Field [5]. Desert RATS provides and operational concept to better develop the science requirements for the design of space exploration systems [6].Preliminary Results: The science operations conducted during Desert RATS 2010 consisted of four 2-person rover crews, with each crew conducting 6 days of field exploration using a pressurized rover concept vehicle. Each crew also conducted 1 day of laboratory analyses on collected samples in a surface habitat demonstration concept [7]. Each rover crew traveled over 60 km during thier field explorations (Rover A, week

Developing Intra-EVA Science Support Team Practices for a Human Mission to Mars

“…As a consequence of its success, several analog programs looking toward NASA's plans for a human mission to Mars (Drake et al, 2010; Craig et al, 2015) have attempted to integrate ground-based intra-EVA science support teams into their mission architectures. Desert Research and Technology Studies (DRATS) (Eppler, 2013; Gruener et al, 2013; Ross et al, 2013; Yingst et al, 2013) and the Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP) both incorporated an intra-EVA science support team, the former working without communication latency. PLRP utilized a one-way light time (OWLT) communication latency of 5 min (10 min round-trip), which was found to strain the science team's ability to tactically acquire, process, and provide directions from the ground, particularly when the scientific objectives of the EVA were survey, representative in nature, as opposed to precise, instrument-data driven (Miller et al, 2016).…”