Enabling Autonomous Science for a Mars Rover
Tara A. Estlin, Rebecca Castaño, Daniel M. Gaines, Daniel M. Gaines, Benjamin Bornstein, Michele Judd, Robert Charles Anderson · SpaceOps 2008 Conference · 2008
gathered by a planetary rover. This analysis is used to prioritize the data for transmission, so that the data with the highest science value is transmitted to Earth. In addition, the onboard analysis results are used to identify and react to new science opportunities. A planning and scheduling component of the system enables the rover to take advantage of identified science opportunities. In this paper, we provide an overview of the OASIS system and report on our experience testing this software with a Mars rover prototype. In particular we discuss how such capabilities can be enabled during ground operations planning and how this increased autonomy will affect downlinked data. We also introduce a new area of OASIS work, which is to provide autonomous targeting capabilities for the MER rovers. I.