Site B Introduction Life in the Atacama 2005 Science & Technology Workshop January 6-7, 2005 Pre-landing analysis Derived hypotheses Daily planning & program Post-ops overview UCLA A. N. Hock UCLA

Life in the Atacama 2005 Science/Technology Workshop 1NASA Ames Research Center / Carnegie Mellon Site B Remote science ops: Cabrol, Dohm, Fisher, Hock, Piatek, Warren-Rhodes, Weinstein Goals Find life! Evaluate habitability with onboard instrumentation Test rover ability (trafficability, data acquisition, etc.) Long traverse Strategy Pre-landing analysis  i.d. potential habitats  long-term planning  daily planning Regional geologic/biologic survey ‘tuned’ to spatially-scaled hypotheses (orbital-local-micro scale observations) Traverse summary 7 sols 14 unique locales ~6 km planned traverse

Life in the Atacama 2005 Science/Technology Workshop 2NASA Ames Research Center / Carnegie Mellon Pre-landing analysis

Life in the Atacama 2005 Science/Technology Workshop 3NASA Ames Research Center / Carnegie Mellon Derived hypotheses Possible carbonate mineralogic signatures identified using thermal emission spectra indicates ancient/recent aqueous activity, including weathering and secondary mineralization. a. Geologic materials exposed at the surface with both high reflectance in the near infrared and relativelylow reflectance in the visible wavelength spectra using VNIR suggests the presence of chlorophyll and/or evaporite minerals (e.g. gypsum). b. Geologic materials within some of the surface runoff features (e.g., individual valleys and valley networks) display high red reflectivity; the signature of these materials may vary with season, indicating potential water-induced secondary mineralization and increased potential for viable habitats. Topographically-controlled flow and deposition of atmospheric watervapor (clouds, fog-- both marine and radiative) enables life in arid regions where surface water may otherwise not be available. Features associated with surface water flow (individual valleys and valley networks, ancient basins, sites of potential groundwater seeps--ancient/recent/geothermal activity and/or groundwater migration along basement structures and geologic contacts--and Salar Grande) increase the potential of identifying prime life-containing environments because of the implied presence of ancient/recent hydrologic/hydrogeologic activity. Solar insolation (a function of location time of year, local atmospheric conditions and micro- to macro-topography) provides a strong control on habitability--we indicated general solar direction on our schematic map to indicate this. Certain locations may benefit from increased insolation while others may benefit from shade (e.g. many non-polar desert ecosystems).

Life in the Atacama 2005 Science/Technology Workshop 4NASA Ames Research Center / Carnegie Mellon Daily planning & program Rover (Chile) Science Ops (Pittsburgh) 0600 Wake up Wake up Ops opens / more analysis 0730 Specify survey traverse 0900 Finalize target selection Charged up / Downlink 0930 Uplink rover traverse Begin traverse 1030 Conclude traverse / 1600 Downlink / initial analysis Uplink science data / hibernate 1900 Ops closes Wake up, night operation2100 Subsurface option2130 Sleep (low power)2200

Life in the Atacama 2005 Science/Technology Workshop 5NASA Ames Research Center / Carnegie Mellon Daily planning & program Phase I science ops recap: Daily planning 0. Pre-downlink: make an outline plan of tomorrow’s operations & strategy beyond final locale. 1. Post-panorama: consider alterations to outline plan based on results from final locale. 2. Planning, 3 stages: A. As a team, plan using homemade MS Excel template. B. Input plan to Eventscope. C. Write up text support document. 3. Team review of plan; after deadline, no more changes to plan. 4. Upload.

Life in the Atacama 2005 Science/Technology Workshop 6NASA Ames Research Center / Carnegie Mellon Site B: post-ops overview Sol 1 (locale 1): Landing day—high res pan & long-term planning Sol 2 (2, 3): local exploration, bearing N to topographic low and potential change in surface mineralogy Sol 3 (4-6): cont’d… Sol 4 (7-11): new geology? Heading W towards geologic contact & ancient drainage Sol 5 (14, 19): continuing upslope to valley in coastal range—terrific mobility (autonomous?) Sol 6 (19b-d): moving S across several fan units; follow the water (vapor!) Sol 7 (20, 24): …runout. Attempted return to landing area foiled by weather

Life in the Atacama 2005 Science/Technology Workshop 7NASA Ames Research Center / Carnegie Mellon Site B: post-ops overview

Life in the Atacama 2005 Science/Technology Workshop 8NASA Ames Research Center / Carnegie Mellon Site B critical analysis - logistics Better commumications with rover team. Understanding level of Zoe’s autonomy prior to planning. Some level of silent, introspective review time is important as a team. Current schedule for plan upload redundant, time-consuming Instrument-specific lessons: Fluorescence imager: single images effective; dye penetration?; conversion from web-images to science product—parallel image display. Meteorology: install instruments on Zoe; request data! VIS/NIR Spectrometer: time requirements (software)?

Life in the Atacama 2005 Science/Technology Workshop 9NASA Ames Research Center / Carnegie Mellon Site B critical analysis – science The ‘sage brush’ lesson Sol 4, locale 08Sol 5, locale 14 More time/staff needed for data review Bore-sighted VNIR spectrometer Weather instruments mission-critical Processed data product available online?

Life in the Atacama 2005 Science/Technology Workshop 10NASA Ames Research Center / Carnegie Mellon Site B critical analysis – science The ‘fovial pan’ lesson: Near field: low resolution Mid field: high resolution, less solar panels Far field: low resolution * Minimizes bandwidth use for maximal data return