Curiosity The Robotic Rover on Mars Aviel Atias Omri Ben Eliezer Yaniv Sabo 29/04/13 1 Curiousity

Exploring Mars Goals of Mars Exploring Signs of Life? Water Inspecting chemical elements Inhabitation of Mars? Weather and radiation 2 Curiousity

3 Exploring Mars History of Mars Exploration Since attempts, 21 of them succeeded Two older rovers are still on their mission Types of Spacecrafts Orbiter Lander Rover

4 Curiousity A car-sized robotic rover exploring Gale Crater ( מכתש ) on Mars right now as part of NASA’s Mars science laboratory mission. Curiosity

5 Curiousity The Curiosity Project 2.5 billion dollars Cost A total of 56,000 years of work How many people worked on it? 8 years of planning, building and testing Time

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7 Structure of Curiosity One brain to control them all Radioisotope thermoelectric power generator Converts heat from the natural decay of Plutonium into electricity Is a reliable source of energy for 20+ years Special mobility system, motors and gears Designed to work on the rocky surface of Mars Electrical Drive System

8 Curiousity Structure of Curiosity Communicates with earth via orbiters of Mars Can also communicate directly with earth Communication System

9 Curiousity A special computer that can handle extreme situations: varying temperatures (-127⁰ to 40⁰ C) High Radiation Curiosity’s Brain

10 Curiousity Radiation Hardened Memory 256 KB of EEPROM 256 MB of DRAM 2 GB of Flash Memory RAD750 Board 200 MHz CPU 400 MIPS (million instructions per second) VxWorks Operating System 27 years old Specialized for space-missions Costs $200,000 and up Specifications Curiosity’s Brain

11 Curiousity Curiosity’s Brain Radiation Hardened Memory 256 MB of DRAM 2GB DRAM 2 GB of Flash Memory 64 GB RAD750 Board 200 MHz CPU Quad-Core, 1.9 GHz 400 MIPS (million instructions per second) 10K MIPS Costs $200,000 and up Costs a few hundred $ In Comparison With a Modern Smartphone…

12 Curiousity Curiosity’s Brain In February 2013, a problem in the flash memory caused the computer to continuously reboot in a loop How do we handle system failures in a robot so far away? It may make the whole mission fail In first place, the systems must be very stable Each system has a few backup systems A Bug!

Robotic Arm The rover has a 2.1 m long arm with holding five devices that can spin through a 350-degree The arm makes use of three joints to extend it forward and to stow it again while driving It has a mass of 30 kg and its diameter is about 60 cm Two of the five devices are contact instruments known as the X-ray spectrometer (APXS), and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI camera) The remaining three are associated with sample acquisition and sample preparation functions: a percussion drill, a brush, and mechanisms for scooping, sieving and portioning samples of powdered rock and soil The diameter of the hole in a rock after drilling is 1.6 cm and up to 5 cm deep 13 Curiousity

Robotic Arm – cont. 5 degrees of freedom. Capable of surviving temperature range of [ C, C]. Operating in [ C, C]. 14 Curiousity

MAHLI camera 15 Curiousity

Navigation Cameras (Navcams) The rover has two pairs of black and white navigation cameras mounted on the mast to support ground navigation The cameras have a 45 degree angle of view and use visible light to capture stereoscopic 3- D imagery. These cameras support use of the ICER image compression format. 16 Curiousity

Hazard Avoidance Cameras The rover has four pairs of black and white navigation cameras called Hazcams—two pairs in the front and two pairs in the back They are used for autonomous hazard avoidance during rover drives and for safe positioning of the robotic arm on rocks and soils The cameras use visible light to capture stereoscopic three- dimensional (3-D) imagery The cameras have a 120 degree field of view and map the terrain at up to 3 m in front of the rover This imagery safeguards against the rover crashing into unexpected obstacles, and works in tandem with software that allows the rover to make its own safety choices 17 Curiousity

Hazard Avoidance Cameras - cont. 18 Curiousity

How to land a robot on mars? The atmosphere is too thin for parachutes and aerobraking alone to be effective. Some previous missions have used airbags to cushion the shock of landing, but Curiosity rover is too heavy for this. 19 Curiousity

The EDL (entry-descent-landing) system During the entire landing phase, the vehicle acts autonomously. This system is more than 20 times accurate, compared to older landing systems. 20 Curiousity

EDL phase 1: Guided entry The rover was folded up within an heat shield that protected it during the atmospheric entry. The heat shield diameter is 4.5 m, which is the largest heat shield ever flown in space. The heat shield experienced peak temperatures of up to 2,090 °C. It reduced the velocity of the spacecraft from approximately 5.8 km/s down to approximately 470 m/s, where parachute is possible. 21 Curiousity

EDL phase 2: Parachute descent When the entry phase was complete and the capsule was at about 10 km altitude, the supersonic parachute deployed. The parachute has 80 suspension lines, is over 50 m long, and is about 16 m in diameter. The parachute is capable of being deployed at Mach 2.2, and can generate up to 289 kN of drag force in the atmosphere. After the parachute was deployed, the heat shield separated and fell away. 22 Curiousity

Parachute descent (contd.) The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team were able to acquire this image: 23 Curiousity

EDL phase 3: Powered descent At about 1.8 km altitude, still travelling at about 100 m/s, the rover and descent stage dropped out of the aeroshell. The descent stage is a platform above the rover with eight hydrazine rockets on arms extending around this platform to slow the descent. Each rocket produces 400 N to 3,100 N of thrust. 24 Curiousity

EDL phase 4: Sky crane landing The sky crane system lowered the rover on three nylon tethers and an electrical cable carrying information and power between. At 7.5 m below the descent stage the sky crane system slowed to a halt and the rover touched down. After the rover touched down, it waited 2 seconds to confirm that it was on solid ground by detecting the weight on the wheels and fired several pyros activating cable cutters. The descent stage flew away to a crash landing 650 m. The sky crane powered descent landing system had never been used in missions before. 25 Curiousity

Sky crane landing (contd.) 26 Curiousity

Thriller 27 Curiousity