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Completed TRL 3 (started at 3, targeting 5)
Crater exploration is important but risky and requires that high-value assets not be put at risk, with lower-value, possibly expendable, assets descending into a crater. On the steep or vertical walls, the strata are exposed, yielding scientific discover that is not currently possible with the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). To be of value to the SMD principal investigator (PI) community, this concept must be matured to the point where a PI could propose a mission using this system and be confident of its success.
This task will develop and demonstrate a “mother-daughter” approach to exploring craters using tethered robots. The small robots will be tethered to the larger robot with winches on both ends so that the “mother” can recover the “daughter” even in the event of failure of the small robot. In normal operation, the daughter robot will pay out the tether to move further away, and spool it back in to return. In FY13, this task demonstrated deployment of the daughter robot with an internal winch on a tether. The daughter robot is designed to move on steep slopes, up to vertical, to carry and point close-up instruments, and to collect samples. In FY14, this task will design and build a tether that provides power from the mother robot to the daughter robot and provides for communications between them. Investigations will conclude on vertical cliff faces, with the capability of precisely positioning and pointing instrument(s) to features on cliff face as small as 1 mm.
Some of the most intriguing science discoveries on Mars came from sites that are currently inaccessible for in-situ analysis and sample return. The recent discovery of recurring slope lineae (RSL), such as those observed in Newton crater, are on steep slopes (25° – 40°) that are hundreds of meters down from the crater rim. In-situ analysis and sample capture of out-flow deposits that have interacted directly with water on Mars would be directly responsive to science priorities described in both the Decadal Survey. The requirement for liquid water in habitable environments makes the retrieval of out-flow samples scientifically important for future return to Earth.
Potential applications of this technology include development of actual exploratory daughter robots for future lunar or Mars missions, capable of exploring cliff edges or the sides of steep craters and returning samples from places where no previous rovers have been able to explore.
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