From knowledge of hazards gained following Viking, several approaches are being pursued for making the Mars Rover Sample Return (MRSR) landing safer. With the pinpoint landing capability approach, a single landing site would be certified in advance of initiating the descent orbit, using pictures transmitted to earth from the orbiter. Onboard instruments would guide the lander to follow mapped terrain to the selected site. If navigation proves insufficiently accurate, a small number of scattered sites would be certified, and the lander would select the most accessible one in real time. Some early-site certification and navigation concepts are discussed. Some of the key problems to overcome include how to recognize hazards too small to be transmitted to earth, how to represent terrain features in the flight computer, how to overcome errors in inertial measurements during landing of over 12-hour duration, how to find the selected site in real time, and how to navigate to the selected site once it is found.
Pinpoint landing concepts for the Mars Rover Sample Return mission
Annual Rocky Mountain Guidance and Control Conference ; 1989 ; Keystone, CO, United States
1989-01-01
Conference paper
No indication
English
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