UST030

6 Mission-critical info for UST professionals Platform one NASA has tested the propulsion of its Mars 2020 rover for the first time (writes Nick Flaherty). The as yet unnamed rover rolled forwards and backwards and pirouetted in a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The next time it drives will be on Mars. The 10 hour test demonstrated all the systems working in concert; the rover steered, turned and drove in 1 m increments over small ramps covered with static-control mats. The engineers expect the system to perform well under Mars’ gravity, which is only three-eighths that of Earth’s. “The test proved that the rover can operate under its own weight, and demonstrated many of the autonomous navigation functions for the first time. This is a major milestone for Mars 2020,” said Rich Rieber, the lead mobility systems engineer for Mars 2020. The project is due to launch in July or August, and land on February 18, 2021, and the rover has far more autonomy than any previous such vehicle. This comes from higher resolution, wide field-of-view colour navigation cameras, an extra processing board for processing images and making maps, and more sophisticated auto-navigation software. The wheels have also been redesigned for greater durability. The autonomy will allow the rover to average 200 m per Martian day (25 hours). This higher average compares to the previous longest drive in a single Martian day of 214 m. Space vehicles Mars rover gets rolling February/March 2020 | Unmanned Systems Technology x The Mars 2020 rover has passed its key test for autonomous movement in the lab; it will be launched later this year (Courtesy of NASA/JPL)