Projects: Red Rover Goes to Mars
Student Astronaut Saatvik Agarwal
Saatvik, David, Maciej and Janice with Geoff Landis
Saatvik, Dāvid, Maciej, and Janice get a lesson from atmospheric scientist Geoff Landis. Created: 6 February 2004.
Credit: The Planetary Society
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Spirit Sol 34 / Opportunity Sol 13
Friday, February 6, 2004
Today was my first day at here at JPL! I had lots of fun. In the beginning
Maciek, Janice and Emily showed us around JPL. First we went to the shop (you
don’t want to know what we did there, do you? – shopping J). Then
our tour of JPL started! First stop was the Mars Yard (it is inside the In-Situ
Instrument Laboratory) – that’s where the rovers are tested. Today
they were running a test to see if trenching would work at Meridiani. This
was our first interaction with scientists and engineers and we saw that they
are a really funny bunch of people (believe me, they crack jokes a lot!).
Later on we went for the Science Context Meeting where we met many more scientists.
In the beginning the previous sol was discussed. Due to energy constraints
in the previous sol they had to drop some science activities and some communication
opportunities. This is not unusual, in fact, it has already been planned for.
Scientists make more plans than they ever can do in one day. As the meeting
progressed the future sols were discussed. Somewhere around Sol 36, Spirit
may begin its long drive to the rim of the crater which has been nicknamed
Bonneville. Hopefully, it will finish this drive by around Sol 60. The drive
wouldn’t have to take so long if the rover was driving all day, but
the scientists want to get some science in on the way. So in the end it really
works out to a not so simple equation in which you have to balance time, science
and mechanical activities like driving. The reason why scientists really want
to get to the crater rim by Sol 60 is because by that time the energy generated
by the solar panels will be considerably lesser. So they will have to take
important decisions on what they want to do, they will probably want to do
as much science as possible with the least driving.
Towards the end of the meeting we saw a Pancam panorama and the future of
the rover was discussed. After the meeting ended we talked to Geoffrey Landis
who works on the Atmosphere and the Soil Physical Properties Theme Groups.
He showed us lots of interesting data. He was recording how the rover’s
energy production changes with time. He had data from both Spirit and Opportunity
and also from Pathfinder. He really spent a lot of time with us. It’s
really amazing how scientists just stop with whatever they are doing and explain
it to us without feeling irritated!
Somewhere in the middle of everything we also got to have ice-cream (free)!
In fact, Maciek told me that that is how they differentiate between Spirit’s
and Opportunity’s floor (although they are also color-coded). Opportunity’s
floor has ice-cream whereas Spirit’s floor does not. Anyway, after the
meeting we headed back up to our office and got started on our work. Janice
and Maciek taught us just about everything – calibration, measuring
MarsDial values etc. They also told us that most of the journal entries are
not finished in one sitting. Now I know why!! Right now, we are going to go
for the Downlink Assessment Meeting and I am going to finish this once I come
back.
All right, so here I am again! The Downlink meeting was quite long, about
an hour. First, all the instrument teams reported the data that they got from
the downlink and the condition of their instruments. Then there were a few
individual presentations which were pretty scientific. For example, one of
them discussed looking at transportation by wind (it is actually called Aeolian
transportation, which Emily tells me was coined after the Greek god of wind).
The scientist, whose first name was Patrick, suggested that Spirit would have
acted as an obstacle to the wind as it was stationary for a long time and
that we should take a look to see if any features have been formed due to
Aeolian transportation. There were also some presentations by the individual
instrument teams about the information which had been derived from the various
spectra and photos. Somewhere towards the end of the meeting an engineer came
in and told us the resources (like power, storage etc.) that the rover would
have tomorrow.
Soon we will be going for the Science Operations Working Group Meeting which
I will be reporting tomorrow!
P.S – I also want to add to the equation I mentioned, energy and storage
capacity. So now from being a ‘not so simple’ equation it becomes
a really hard and complex one!
Spirit Sol 35 / Opportunity Sol 14
Saturday , February 7, 2004
Yesterday (it was really today, because it was after midnight) we also attended
the Science Operations Working Group (SOWG) Meeting. In this meeting the scientists
decide the rover’s schedule for the next day. It wasn’t as interesting
as the other meetings because it only involves deleting and adding sequences
of activities which the scientists have already prepared beforehand during
the PORTs (Post Launch Operation Readiness Tests). But we realized that it
is really hard to please all of the scientists. Most of them want to do as
much science as they possibly can. As a result, they end up requesting for
a lot of activities, most of which never get done!
This morning (as soon as we got back to the office), we immediately started
calibrating images. After about an hour we went for the Science Context Meeting.
It was pretty short and the room was relatively empty. There was only one
presentation today. It mainly discussed the energy models being used (currently)
and the future energy allocation for science and driving.
Two main driving methods were discussed. In the first method, the rover is
navigated manually by engineers on Earth, whereas in the second method, the
rover navigates using its own Hazard Avoidance System. The methods differ
greatly in the amount of time and energy they use. The Hazard Avoidance System
uses a lot more energy and time than the other system. The speed with the
autonomous navigation ON is about 10 times slower as when the system is OFF.
A slower speed helps ensure the rover stays safe when its autonomously navigating.
Hence, choosing the driving model is of critical importance.
We also learned that the energy produced by sunlight on the solar panels
falls somewhat by the 60th sol. Driving can take a lot of energy. Hence, they
want to drive to the rim of the crater by the 60th Sol.
Soon we will be going to the Downlink Assessment Meeting (I will report on
this tomorrow). Overall, today was a lot freer than yesterday. But I still
think that we had more fun yesterday (mainly because it was our first day
here).
Spirit Sol 36 / Opportunity Sol 15
Sunday, February 8, 2004
This journal is in two parts. The first part is about the Science Downlink
Assessment Meeting from Sol 35 (yesterday) and the second part is about Sol
36.
Post Script to Sol 35 Journal:
It was a really subdued group that met for the Sol 35 Science Downlink
Assessment meeting. The rover was supposed to back up today and take pictures
and other measurements (spectra) of the spot where it had stopped (in front
of the rock Adirondack) after the anomaly. But it seems that a flag (this
flag can only be removed by ground staff and only once it’s removed
can the drive take place) prevented the drive from occurring earlier. As
a result, the activities which were scheduled after the drive, took place
at the same place. However, ALL the data recorded is useful. While it wasn’t
the optimal use of Spirit’s time, it wasn’t the worst either.
Scientists love to get more and more data to play with! The really amazing
thing about scientists is that they never get disheartened. They are always
enthusiastic!
There were also a few talks on the science results of the RAT, the APXS,
the Mossbauer Spectrometer and a general talk on surface processes at Gusev
Crater. (As the talks progress, it becomes harder for us to keep up with and
understand).
Today we got to the office at 5:30 (a bit later than the past two days).
We immediately went to the Science Context Meeting. We were already a bit
late, so we missed it’s beginning. But it was still a very short and
interesting meeting! Yesterday, the rover was again commanded to drive and
this time it did! Now it has got a rock named White Boat and has begun its
long drive to the rim of the crater Bonneville. So in today’s meeting,
the scientists were discussing the next stop (it’s not really a stop,
it’s called a ‘touch and go’ – that’s self-explanatory).
After the meeting, we asked the lead scientist of the Long Term Planning
(LTP for short) Group, Jack Farmer, to explain the driving part to us (mainly
because the route and the names were getting too much and too confusing for
us!). Like all other scientists he was very nice and forthcoming. Later on,
we also saw a scientist working with Spirit, who had the Spirit timeline on
his computer but somehow was getting Opportunity Sols! So when he asked one
of the scientists on the Atmosphere team why this was so, the scientist immediately
joked, “I don’t think that’s a question that interests me!” (Though
he was confounded too).
When we came back to our office, we started calibrating images again and
writing our journals. Now we have to go to the Science Downlink Assessment
Meeting.First there was an update on the state of health of the rover and
general status of the project. Finally, Spirit has passed Opportunity in mileage
(the distance it has driven from the beginning of egress). Overall it was
a good day for the rover. The presentation after that emphasized the need
for prioritizing the science activities while driving. The scientist introduced
five levels of prioritization -
- Absolutely necessary requirements for driving
- Very high
- High
- Medium
- Drop-ins (observations that don’t take too up too many resources and
hence could be ‘dropped-in’ whenever there was time and energy).
One of the talks was on the resource utilization of the rover while driving.
One of the engineers had estimated the amount of resources that would be used
while driving. There were different estimates for each driving method (for
more on the different driving methods – see my previous journal). From
this the scientists could calculate how much energy, time, storage, etc. would
be left for science. (Most of the discussions now seem to be concentrated
on the long drive that began today.)
The last presentation was by Larry Haskins, part of the Geology team. He
had compiled the resource requirements of the different types of Pancam and
Mini-TES measurements. This will be pretty useful for the other scientists
while they are planning.
There are some remote sensing activities scheduled for tomorrow at White
Boat. Hopefully they will return some good science data!
Spirit Sol 37 / Opportunity Sol 16
Monday, February 9, 2004
Today as soon as we got to office, we again started calibrating images. By
now, I’m sure all of you are wondering what we are doing with so many
images. Well, we have to calibrate EACH image captured of the MarsDial. In
the end, we will put them all together to make a movie which shows how time
changes on Mars.
The first meeting today was the Science Context Meeting. One of the scientists
explained data and file restrictions on flash memory and how the flash memory
is currently allocated and managed. There are certain limits on the number
of files and the total data that can be stored. Within these theoretical limits,
self-imposed limits are also maintained. Due to a very complex problem (which
is too hard for me to explain), somehow the data and files being stored were
exceeding the self-imposed limits on Opportunity (not on Spirit yet).
After the meeting, our mentor KJ Walsh took us to Mission Control. It was
truly amazing! It’s the best place I’ve been to in JPL! At Mission
Control, Mission Manager, Mark Adler, told us what everybody does. He was
free at that time, since they were between two orbiter passes. We asked him
all sorts of questions like – What OS does the rover use to how fast
its processor is. He was really very nice to us. Then KJ took us for a ‘real’ tour
of JPL where he showed us all the other floors and offices that we had never
seen.
Right now we are calibrating images – AGAIN. Soon we will be going
to the Science Downlink Assessment Meeting.
In the beginning of the meeting all the scientists checked in with the condition
of their instruments and the data that was downlinked today. Some of the scientists
also brought up some limitations on the rover’s activities and discussed
ways to get around it. Today was primarily a driving sol, mainly because the
engineers had requested for such a sol (I think so). Even the touch and go
observations on White Boat were dropped. Then one of the scientists remarked
that it was the longest autonomous drive on another planet and the whole room
cheered.
In the middle of the meeting, all the theme groups like Mineralogy explained
what they wanted in the future and who would plan those sequences. After this,
there were talks on the science results of the rover’s instruments.
The only talk we attended (since we had to go back to our office to finish
our journals) was on using the APXS and Mossbauer data together to determine
the composition of Adirondack.
Today wasn’t as interesting as the other days (except visiting mission
operations!). Hopefully tomorrow will be better!!
Spirit Sol 38 / Opportunity Sol 17
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Today we measured the mean pixel values from different areas of the MarsDial.
The Pancam team wants to do this so that they can check if the values the
camera is returning are not junk (I don’t know how they do that with
our values). One of the scientists on the atmosphere team, Geoffrey Landis,
also wants these values. If you remember, he was working with the deposition
of dust on the solar panels and how the energy produced goes down due to that.
It seems that these values will also help him in understanding the dust deposition
and modeling it. I believe that he was doing the same thing and he accidentally
discovered that we were doing it too and then he requested us to do it for
him too. So I guess (and hope) we are helping out!
After an hour and a half, we went down to the Science Context Meeting. Today
was a “busted” sol. That means that we didn’t do anything
because the plans never got transmitted to the rover. I don’t know why
yet (but I will ask the scientists after the meeting). The meeting chair also
said that we must start discussing criteria to choose stops on the way.
The first presentation was by Hap McSween on the geochemistry of Adirondack.
We only understood a part of it, not enough for me to explain it. Then the
Geology theme group lead, Natalie Cabrol, talked about the various features
they would like to examine, for example, carbonates or layered rocks. She
had also suggested priorities for the different features (these were only
from the geology point of view).
Another scientist showed how hypotheses driven exploration would lead to
the optimal use of Spirit’s time. He said that thinking of hypotheses
and keeping them in mind while planning would lead to a better schedule. Next,
there was a talk by the Mineralogy and Geochemistry leads on the targets they
would like and their priorities. It was similar to the Geology team’s
presentation. Other theme groups also had similar presentations after this.
Towards the end, it got really boring. But finally the meeting ended. The
meeting was the longest Science Context Meeting so far.
In the Science Downlink Assessment meeting we found out that the rover's
high gain antenna was not pointed in the correct direction to receive the
instructions. This was mainly due to the rovers orientation which led to the
shadow of the Pancam Mast Assembly falling on the actuators of the antenna.
This led to the actuators being too cool. Every morning the actuators move\rotate
and after sometime they stall (thats how they calibrate themselves). This
way they can work out their position and point themselves in the correct direction.
Due to their being too cool, they stalled too soon and were off direction
by about 30 degrees. As a result, the commands never got sent to the rover.
We missed the second half of the meeting as we had to leave.
P.S – One thing that I have noticed in all meetings is that the scientists
have good screensavers! All the photos are from space of course!
Spirit Sol 39 / Opportunity Sol 18
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Today we were again measuring the mean values of MarsDial images. We are
absolutely up to date on calibrating images. The first meeting today is (as
usual) the Science Context Meeting. The room was almost empty. Then people
started trickling in but it was still relatively empty. Later on, they started
planning for Sol 39 and Sol 40.
The first talk was by David Des Marias on the Traverse to Bonneville Crater.
It discussed key science targets and the schedule during the traverse. He
had calculated how many Sols would be left over for science after subtracting
the driving sols from the total number of sols left up to Sol 60. He had done
two calculations the first one accounted for one contingency Sol in every
three Sols and the second one did not account for any contingency Sols. The
last presentation was on the ejecta of Gusev Crater.
After the meeting we had a long talk with the Geology team lead, Nathalie
Cabrol. She was one of the scientists involved in choosing the landing sites
(her choice was Gusev Crater). She gave us an insight into her reasons for
Gusev Crater. She also told us that every single observation that we are doing
on Mars right now is resulting in ground truth for thirty years of observations.
After that we came back to our office (with ice-cream on the way) and started
on our journals. Soon we went for the Downlink Assessment Meeting.
At the meeting all the instrument teams checked in with their instruments
and the data downlinked today (as usual). Today was also a driving sol. But
there was quite a bit of discussion among the team today. The scientists couldnt
decide whether to stay at the same place tomorrow or to just drive on. One
group wanted to stay, one wanted to leave.
After some discussion, there was a presentation by Larry Crumpler on the
traverse to the crater rim. Essentially, he showed that scientists don't have
time to do as much science on the way as they had originally planned on doing,
i.e., they need to cut down on science and drive on (if they want to get to
the crater rim by Sol 60).
Scientists mainly discussed the various combinations of scientific observations
and driving that would fit in the schedule. It was probably the most serious
meeting yet. In fact, the originally scheduled science talks were also dropped/postponed.
They will have to make some really hard decisions in the Science Operations
Working Group meeting.
Spirit Sol 40 / Opportunity Sol 19
Thursday, February 12, 2004
The first meeting today was the Science Context Meeting. Before the meeting
we were calibrating some new images in the office. The first thing we were
told was that instead of using the robotic arm today, they did a Pancam survey
of the whole area. We were also told that engineers wanted “mega-drives.” This
means that they want entire sols for driving. They want to do these around
Sol 42 or Sol 43. The engineers want to do two or three 18-20m drives (in
one day). The meeting was very short today even though there was quite a large
audience.
After the meeting we had two very productive talks with two of the scientists
on the Geology team – Frederick Grant and Patrick Whelley. Patrick Whelley
basically explained how the Pancam images are mosaiced, that is, how many
Pancam images are put together into one big image, and why they have weird
shapes (if you look at some of them, you’ll know that they have really
weird shapes!). It has something to do with resolving them spatially and compensating
for that and putting it in perspective. At least, that’s what I figured!
Then he showed us the location of various named features. Believe me, there
are too many! After that I started talking to (bugging really!) Frederick
Grant. He showed me how the SAP (Science Activity Planner) Downlink Browser
works. It’s pretty cool software and it is also one of the most used.
He told me how they can open Pancam images and view range data (i.e., how
far an object is). You can only do this if you have images from both the eyes.
Since this is the software that they use to prepare a schedule to send to
the rover, it knows everything that they do. So if you open a filter from
the 2nd filter on the left eye of the Pancam, the software also knows all
the other filters that were used to picture the same target and even though
you may not where the other file is, the software has it catalogued and can
open it for you in one click. Then using the data that the software already
has about the Pancam like field of vision etc., it can automatically figure
out the distance and size of certain features.
When we got back to office (with ice-cream on the way) we started on our
journals. The next meeting is the Science Downlink Assessment Meeting. We
don’t have time to report it today. It’ll be in tomorrow’s
journal!
Postscript:
First up there was an update from each instrument team. Most of the instruments
were in good condition without any problems. For the first time, the Sol tree
was branched (it is a review of the planned\suggested activities for the next
three or four sols).
The scientists have very little time to discuss science. Most of the time
they concentrate on planning for the next Sol. As a result, most of the science
talks get postponed for the next meeting. Right now the scientists are in
a quandary. It’s really hard for them to decide if they want to stay
here or go on. At the current location, they have two interesting features
to examine – a bunch of dunes called Arena and a rock called Mimi.
Spirit Sol 41 / Opportunity Sol 20
Saturday, February 14, 2004
Today we were joined by the new Student Astronauts – Cheng-Tao Chung
and Kristyn Rodzinyak. They are really nice and a lot of fun to be with! Today
is also our last day at Jet Propulsion Laboratory – unfortunately. Luckily,
we have an extra long shift. We will also be attending part of the Science
Operations Working Group meeting.
Soon we went for the Science Context Meeting. First we talked to a PhD student
from Arizona State University working on Spirit. She showed us some new images
of Mimi and the soil nearby. Today the meeting chair was David Des Marais.
After the usual Sol Tree Review, he showed us what was in and out of the plan
for future sols. They had planned for a touch and go (it means that the rover
stops, unstows the IDD, does some science, stows the IDD and drives again)
on the soil and then to approach Mimi. For the next sol (that means tomorrow – Sol
42) they have planned to do spectroscopy on Mimi. Today they also had a record-breaking
UHF communication session.
As Mimi was too small to RAT, David Des Marais joked that if they RAT it,
they might end up blasting it out of the work volume! The meeting was very
brief and relatively empty. After that we came back to our office to show
the new Student Astronauts how to calibrate images, measure MarsDial values
and the works. We also got a new set of images of The Planetary Society’s
DVD to calibrate. These were the first full frame images we worked with. The
image quality was amazing. Well, I already knew that but when you do it on
your own, you get a different feeling.
The second meeting for today was the Science Downlink Assessment Meeting.
There were no major engineering issues today and the drive took place without
any problems. All the instruments had a good day and quite a lot of data was
returned from most of the instruments.
Now Spirit has had 29 Sols of Operation (what a pity I wouldn’t be
around to witness the minimum mission success). As usual there was also a
Sol Tree Review. We also found out that the touch and go on the soil and the
approach to Mimi worked and that tomorrow will be a spectroscopy Sol. One
of the engineers, Scott Maxwell, also confirmed that Mimi was in the work
volume.
One of the scientists had also done a spectral analysis of Mimi. This is
where they look at it through many different filters on the Pancam and see
how much light is reflected through each filter. This was the only science
talk today. The meeting was very productive, interesting and intense. It was
probably the first time I got ‘in the groove of it’.
Two things that I noticed during the meeting –
-> Scientists discuss everything in a logical sequence. So for example,
first they will decide a target and then how much time they will spend on
it (that’s basically at a macro level, the discussion is a lot more
detailed).
-> They also weigh the pros and cons of everything that they will do.
So it just keeps going back and forth till they have raised enough positive
or negative points about the issue to convince everybody.
Today they will be going into the Science Operations Working Group meeting
with two sequences (which will be as generic as possible) because they wanted
more data to choose another target near Mimi (which they have decided they
will). Hopefully by then they will know what to do!
P.S – Of course, it was an amazing experience being here but it was
a lot of fun too. You know science is not boring! We really had a great time
here and well, all thanks to the Planetary Society.
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