Exploration, Robotics - HMP 2002Tests of several new robotic concepts and systems in support of HMP field exploration and the future exploration of Mars, including an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (AVU) and a Rover-Tethered Balloon or RTB (an ATV-tethered balloon system to serve as a mobile exploration aerial imaging platform and radio relay). As well we will be testing a Lidar mounted on an autonomous ARGO ATV and a team from NASA AMES will be testing the MEX-HORSE rover system.
Mobile Exploration System (MEX) - Human Operated Robotic Science Evaluation (HORSE)
A team from NASA-Ames is carrying out an experiment during the week of July 22-26 that coupled by satellite a
team on Devon island in the Canadian Arctic with several geologists in a virtual-reality facility at NASA-Ames. The
general area being studied borders a well preserved 23 million year old 20 km diameter impact crater -- Haughton Crater.
Since 1997 the crater has been the focus of a combined science and technology project (the Haughton-Mars Project (HMP)), to
study and use the site as a Mars analog.
The Human Operated Robotic Science Evaluation (HORSE) project seeks to find out how well we can carry out an exploration of several sites at Haughton by remote means, conceptually modelled on an experiment that Stanford professor Don Lowe carried out a few years ago using a graduate student, a 35 mm camera and FedEx. The HMP sites in question were studied last year by unencumbered, experienced geologists to establish "ground truth", and HORSE will be using those reports as a baseline for comparison with the remotely-obtained results, as well as with the results obtained by a time-limited human in a spacesuit prototype.
At several HMP science sites, a 2020-era rover will be simulated by using an instrumented All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) with a human operator receiving remote commands. This rover will be assumed to have rudimentary obstacle-avoidance and autonomous navigation capabilities, as well as able to process higher-level goals and instructions. The human operator will obey these remote commands - either in near-real-time, corresponding to teleoperation from a Mars libration point or Martian orbit - or with Earth-Mars transmission time delays inserted. This information will be transmitted between the rover and NASA-Ames using the Ames Mobile Exploration System computing and wireless communications infrastructure and the satellite link provided by Simon Fraser University and the Communication Research Centre of Canada. In cooperation with Hamilton-Sundstrand Space Systems, a human geologist will visit and evaluate the same field locations during the week of July 29. " I hope that the comparison of the science return from these different exploration scenarios will give us an idea of their relative productivity", said HORSE project manager Dr. Brian Glass.
The panoramic images acquired by the simulated rover will be displayed in a NASA-Ames virtual-reality facility (Future Flight Central, http://ffc.arc.nasa.gov) on 12 projection screens surrounding the science team. "We have found that for martian or other landscape panoramas this provides a sense of presence that can't be achieved otherwise," according to HORSE principal investigator Dr. Geoff Briggs. The FFC science team, led at Ames by Dr. Kelly Snook, will have access to remote sensing data for each HMP site so that they can develop an understanding of the nature of the site and plan a nominal course of action for the first in-situ exploration of that site by a robot under their control. Their course of action will typically consist of identifying a number of points of special interest (with the nature of that interest being clearly identified -- i.e. questions to be addressed at each point) and planning to start the rover site investigation by going to the first point and traversing from there to there other points of special interest. Similar pre-briefings will be provided to the suited human evaluators.
The HORSE project was initiated in March, 2002 with support from the Agency-wide NASA Exploration Team (NEXT) Human-Robotic Working Group. It builds on a prior science backroom study done in 2001 at Haughton and on three years of Mobile Exploration systems development and field testing at HMP.
Project Requirements:
* Access to Mars analog sites that are known to be of some geological complexity
* Participation of field geologists who have not previously visited the sites in question
* High quality visual immersion environment for scientist-controllers
* Ability to simulate a surface rover of ~2020 vintage where we assume:
* Autonomous navigation ability
* Autonomous dexterity in terms of interacting with rocks, soils and assorted equipment
* Substantial bandwidth and low latency link for communication of images
* Meticulous record-keeping
* Eventually carry out many different field tests to minimize the variations introduced by the unpredictable human element (inspiration vs perspiration -- we are attempting to assess the perspiration element)
PI: Geoff Briggs (at NASA Ames)
Co-PI, Project Mgr: Brian Glass
Mobile Exploration: Richard Alena, Victor Rundquist
HORSE Development Team (at ARC): Jen Jasper, Samantha Domville, Lori Blaauw
HMP Communications: Stephen Braham
Remote Science Team (at ARC): Kelly Snook, Jeff Moersch, Jim Saunders, Virginia Gulick
HMP Site Survey: John Schutt, Gordon Osinski, Pascal Lee
Time-of-flight Lidar (Laser-Radar) is a technique used to generate 3-dimensional images of a desired target scene. Like a laser range finder, a pulse of laser light is sent out of the lidar unit, and the time it takes for a reflection of that laser light off a target to return to the unit is used to calculate the distance to that target. Lidar calculates distances to different parts of the scene by scanning across it. A 3-d image can be built up by scanning across x and y coordinates, and the z coordinate is obtained by the distance calculation. In addition, the intensity of the reflected light is measured which is a measure of the ability of the target to reflect light at the laser wavelength, and this is often correlated to the color of the object. Since the raw data is already in 3-dimensional format, little processing is needed to obtain the desired information.
This powerful technique can be used to obtain mission-critical information in a Mars mission:
a) In the future, landers on Mars will need to land in a precision manner, avoiding obstacles and hazards on the ground in the last seconds of the descent phase. Lidar can be used to generate the information required to the guidance system to ensure a safe landing.
b) Mars rovers traditionally use stereo optical cameras to obtain 3-dimensional information to obtain distance information to objects in its path. Lidar can be used to augment this capability by decreasing the processing required and by obtaining hi-resolution 3-dimensional information to objects much further away (typically 5km), aiding in mission planning and mission safety.
c) Future Mars sample return missions will most likely rely on a Mars Ascent Vehicle to rendezvous and dock with a waiting orbital spacecraft before returning home. Orbital rendezvous and docking can be much simplified and made more reliable when lidar is used to find and track the object to be docked with.
d) Lidar can be used for science instruments such as instruments that study the atmosphere and track dust devils on the surface of Mars.
The Canadian Space Agency is developing lidar technology for Mars applications by capitalizing on the world leadership in this field by Canadian companies such as Optech Inc. and MDRobotics. Optech Inc., Ontario Drive and Gear, Crestech, and the Canadian Space Agency are sponsors of this project.
Link: Lidar Photo Gallery
A robotic airplane may be just the right ticket for economically exploring swaths of Martian territory up close.
From July 17 to 24, 2002, The Planetary Society will team up with NASA Ames Research Center, the SETI Institute, and MicroPilot to fly an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic in simulated Mars exploration. The airborne scientific investigations of this remote region will coincide with the anniversary of two milestone events in space exploration history - the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon in 1969 and Viking 1 landing on Mars in 1976, both on July 20th.
Devon Island is a treeless polar desert as large as the state of West Virginia. Its climate, remoteness, rocky plains, deep canyons, rugged landscape, and lack of human population make it a good analog for Mars, which is why NASA has sponsored the Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) at an impact crater site there for the past six years. Devon Island is home to the second most northerly known impact structure on Earth.
"The UAV flights will, in part, be simulations to learn more about the science and exploration potential of Mars airplanes, carried out in a Mars analog environment on Earth," says Planetary Society Director of Projects Bruce Betts. "In addition, the flights will enable the Ames-led UAV team to develop flight control strategies for Mars airplanes, and will allow the HMP science team to study the Mars analog environment itself."
The UAV team will fly the autonomous craft over a variety of terrains, exploring Devon Island's arid landscape from the air just as scientists hope they may one day explore Mars with autonomous aircraft. During their one-week stay at Haughton, the team will fly the UAV as many times per day as weather conditions and fuel supplies will permit. In the summer days are 24 hours long north of the Arctic Circle.
The airplane, manufactured by MicroPilot, is called a Xtra Easy UAV. The team will bring three such craft to Devon Island. Each UAV measures 175 centimeters from wing tip to wingtip and will be equipped with an on-board video camera to image the island below. The aircraft are quiet and efficient with fuel, which will help minimize any disturbance to the environment.
After each short flight, Planetary Society representative and geologist Emily Lakdawalla will help the HMP Science Team analyze the data and select the next target for the UAV to observe.
One type of surface feature that the team hopes to examine is water-eroded gullies that have many similarities to the recent gully systems reported on Mars. Since the UAV can fly at different altitudes - from 50 to 500 meters over Devon Island -- surface features can be examined from a variety of angles and perspectives.
"Satellite image resolution is getting better and better, but most satellites look straight down or nearly straight down at the landscape," said Lakdawalla. "Airplanes will let us look at steep features like gullies and crater walls from the side, and they'll be able to make multiple passes at interesting features from different directions."
The Devon Island experiment does not test a Mars Airplane-like vehicle, but rather simulates the scientific use of airplanes for Martian exploration. NASA has seriously studied the Mars Airplane concepts and the agency has received many airplane proposals in recent years. Mars airplanes have the potential to fill the gap between orbiters, that gather data over the whole planet but are limited in resolution and viewing angle, and rovers, that see a very small portion of Mars in great detail.
In the future, autonomous airplanes might be used to examine more closely Mars targets that scientists select from orbital images of the planet. In turn, interesting targets surveyed from the air might be further explored by ground-based rovers or, one day, by human explorers on the planet's surface.
The Planetary Society is beginning a series of activities to simulate components of possible future Mars Outposts, which are part of a proposed exploration strategy that would build up sustained, incremental infrastructure in certain locations on Mars, eventually leading to human exploration. The Society's participation at the HMP is in part to simulate Mars airplanes in this context.
The UAV team, led by Larry Young and Benton Lau of NASA Ames Research Center, is participating in the Devon Island tests to conduct research on a Mars mission concept called BEES for Mars. BEES stands for Bio-inspired Engineering for Exploration Systems. The objective of this NASA Ames research-and-development effort is to develop flight control strategies for Mars exploration that are bio-inspired. In other words, the engineers want to develop technology that mimics and is inspired by some of the behavior patterns of natural creatures, such as bees or ants.
MicroPilot is a division of Loewen Aviation Ltd. Their autopilot systems have been used to measure particulate levels of harmful substances around chemical spills and to conduct aerial photography and videography. They have flown a number of different aircraft, including backpackable UAV's, blimps, powered parachutes, and high-speed drones. Paul Chambers from MicroPilot will participate in the tests at Devon Island.
Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute directs the NASA Haughton Mars Project. Many government agencies, universities, industry, and private organizations cooperate and participate in the project from the United States, Canada, and other nations around the world.
In addition to Lakdawalla's role in the tests, The Planetary Society is also supplying the large dome-shaped hangar tent for the three UAV's. The Planetary Society dome will be established at the HMP Base Camp. Living conditions at Devon Island are basic, and researchers haul accommodations for themselves and their equipment with them to the Base Camp.
Lakdawalla's daily updates about the UAV tests will be posted on The Planetary Society's website at http://planetary.org. This Devon Diary will include still images of the UAV team and aircraft in action, and possibly video from the flights.
Link: UAV Photo Gallery