CU's Squyres goes to desert camp for next NASA Mars landing

With less than a year to go before the launch of NASA's twin rovers to explore the surface of Mars, mission scientists have spent the last few weeks at a high-tech summer camp, rehearsing their roles for when the spacecraft take center stage.

"The purpose of this test is really to teach the science team how to remotely conduct field geology using a rover, rather than to test the rover hardware," said John Callas, the science manager for the Mars Exploration Rover mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. "We sent one of our engineering development rovers out to a distant, undisclosed desert location, with the science team back at JPL planning the operations and sending commands just like they'll do when the actual rovers are on Mars."

Steven Squyres, Cornell professor of astronomy, is the principal investigator for the Athena science package to be carried by the two rovers. The two vehicles are scheduled for launch between May and June, 2003, and to reach the planet in January 2004. The rovers, each a 300-pound mobile laboratory, will journey about 110 yards a day on Mars, each carrying instruments that will allow them to search for evidence of liquid water.

Each rover will spend at least three months conducting surface operations, exploring Mars for evidence of past water interaction with the surface and looking for other clues to the planet's past.

The 10-day blind test in the California desert, from Aug. 10 to 19, used a test vehicle called Field Integrated Design Operations (FIDO), which is similar in size and capability to the actual rovers. Although important differences exist, the similarities are great enough that the same challenges exist in commanding FIDO in complex realistic terrain as are expected for the rovers on Mars.

"The scientific instruments on this test rover are similar to the Athena science payload that will be carried by the Mars Exploration Rovers," said Squyres. "We're using the test rover now to learn how to do good field geology with a robot. When we get to real Mars rover operations in 2004, we'll be able to use everything we're learning now to maximize our science return."

FIDO has received and executed daily commands via satellite communications between JPL and the remote desert field site. "Each day, they have sent images and science data to JPL that reveal properties of the desert geology," said Eddie Tunstel, the rovers' lead engineer at JPL.

The science team of more than 60 scientists from around the world will tell the rovers what to do and where to go from the mission-control room at JPL. This month's test is one of several training operations that are planned before landing.

Both rovers are currently being built at JPL. They will be shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida next year to begin preparations for launch. Shortly before the launch, NASA will select the landing sites.

The Mars rover mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

This article was prepared by the JPL media office.