ALBERT

Description: Three NASA centers are working together to address the challenge of operating robotic assets in support of human exploration of the Moon. This paper describes the combined work to date of the Ames Research Center (ARC), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Johnson Space Center (JSC) on a common support framework to control and monitor lunar robotic assets. We discuss how we have addressed specific challenges including time-delayed operations, and geographically distributed collaborative monitoring and control, to build an effective architecture for integrating a heterogeneous collection of robotic assets into a common work. We describe the design of the Robot Application Programming Interface Delegate (RAPID) architecture that effectively addresses the problem of interfacing a family of robots including the JSC Chariot, ARC K-10 and JPL ATHLETE rovers. We report on lessons learned from the June 2008 field test in which RAPID was used to monitor and control all of these assets. We conclude by discussing some future directions to extend the RAPID architecture to add further support for NASA's lunar exploration program.

Description: This software simplifies the process of having to set up an Eclipse IDE programming environment for the members of the cross-NASA center project, Ensemble. It achieves this by assembling all the necessary add-ons and custom tools/preferences. This software is unique in that it allows developers in the Ensemble Project (approximately 20 to 40 at any time) across multiple NASA centers to set up a development environment almost instantly and work on Ensemble software. The software automatically has the source code repositories and other vital information and settings included. The Eclipse IDE is an open-source development framework. The NASA (Ensemble-specific) version of the software includes Ensemble-specific plug-ins as well as settings for the Ensemble project. This software saves developers the time and hassle of setting up a programming environment, making sure that everything is set up in the correct manner for Ensemble development. Existing software (i.e., standard Eclipse) requires an intensive setup process that is both time-consuming and error prone. This software is built once by a single user and tested, allowing other developers to simply download and use the software

Description: This software provides the service-level functionality to manage the delivery of files from a lander mission repository to an orbiter mission repository for eventual spacelink relay by the orbiter asset on a specific communications pass. It provides further functions to deliver and track a set of mission-defined messages detailing lander authorization instructions and orbiter data delivery state. All of the information concerning these transactions is persisted in a database providing a high level of accountability of the forward-link relay process.

Description: This software provides a development framework that allows planning activities for the Mars Science Laboratory rover to be altered at any time, based on changes of the Activity Dictionary. The Activity Dictionary contains the definition of all activities that can be carried out by a particular asset (robotic or human). These definitions (and combinations of these definitions) are used by mission planners to give a daily plan of what a mission should do. During the development and course of the mission, the Activity Dictionary and actions that are going to be carried out will often be changed. Previously, such changes would require a change to the software and redeployment. Now, the Activity Dictionary authors are able to customize activity definitions, parameters, and resource usage without requiring redeployment. This software provides developers and end users the ability to modify the behavior of automatically generated activities using a script. This allows changes to the software behavior without incurring the burden of redeployment. This software is currently being used for the Mars Science Laboratory, and is in the process of being integrated into the LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) mission, as well as the International Space Station.

Description: A system was developed to provide a new mechanism for members of the mission community to create and contribute new science data to the rest of the community. Mission tools have allowed members of the mission community to share first order data (data that is created by the mission s process in command and control of the spacecraft or the data that is captured by the craft itself, like images, science results, etc.). However, second and higher order data (data that is created after the fact by scientists and other members of the mission) was previously not widely disseminated, nor did it make its way into the mission planning process.

Description: This software allows science and mission operations to view graphs of geometric overflights of satellites and landers within the Mars (or other planetary) networks. It improves on the MaROS Web interface within any modern Web browser, in that it adds new capabilities to the MaROS suite. The profile for an overflight is an important element for selecting communication/ overflight opportunities between the landers and orbiters within the Mars network. Unfortunately, determining these estimates is very computationally expensive and difficult to compute by hand. This software allows the user to select different overflights (via the existing MaROS Web interface) and specify the smoothness of the estimation. Estimates for the geometric relationship between a lander and an orbiter are determined based upon the orbital conditions of the orbiter at the moment the orbiter rises above the horizon from the perspective of the lander. It utilizes 2-body orbital equations to propagate the trajectory through the duration of the view period, and returns profiles that represent the range between the two vehicles, and the elevation and azimuth angles of the orbiter as measured from the lander s position. The algorithms assume a 2-body relationship with an ideal, spherical planetary body, so therefore can see errors less than 2% at polar landing sites on Mars. These algorithms are being implemented to provide rough estimates rapidly for the geometry of a geometric view period where more complete data is unavailable, such as for planning purposes. While other software for this task exists, each at the time of this reporting has been contained within a much more complicated package. This tool allows science and mission operations to view the estimates with a few clicks of the mouse.

Description: This software is provided by the Mars Relay Operations Service (MaROS) task to a variety of Mars projects for the purpose of coordinating communications sessions between landed spacecraft assets and orbiting spacecraft assets at Mars. The Information Management Service centralizes a set of functions previously distributed across multiple spacecraft operations teams, and as such, greatly improves visibility into the end-to-end strategic coordination process. Most of the process revolves around the scheduling of communications sessions between the spacecraft during periods of time when a landed asset on Mars is geometrically visible by an orbiting spacecraft. These relay sessions are used to transfer data both to and from the landed asset via the orbiting asset on behalf of Earth-based spacecraft operators. This software component is an application process running as a Java virtual machine. The component provides all service interfaces via a Representational State Transfer (REST) protocol over https to external clients. There are two general interaction modes with the service: upload and download of data. For data upload, the service must execute logic specific to the upload data type and trigger any applicable calculations including pass delivery latencies and overflight conflicts. For data download, the software must retrieve and correlate requested information and deliver to the requesting client. The provision of this service enables several key advancements over legacy processes and systems. For one, this service represents the first time that end-to-end relay information is correlated into a single shared repository. The software also provides the first multimission latency calculator; previous latency calculations had been performed on a mission-by-mission basis.

Description: This software displays a full summary of information regarding the overflight opportunities between any set of lander and orbiter pairs that the user has access to view. The information display can be customized, allowing the user to choose which fields to view/hide and filter. The software works from a Web browser on any modern operating system. A full summary of information pertaining to an overflight is available, including the proposed, tentative, requested, planned, and implemented. This gives the user a chance to quickly check for inconsistencies and fix any problems. Overflights from multiple lander/ orbiter pairs can be compared instantly, and information can be filtered through the query and shown/hidden, giving the user a customizable view of the data. The information can be exported to a CSV (comma separated value) or XML (extensible markup language) file. The software only grants access to users who are authorized to view the information. This application is an addition to the MaROS Web suite. Prior to this addition, information pertaining to overflight opportunities would have a limited amount of data (displayed graphically) and could only be shown in strict temporal ordering. This new display shows more information, allows direct comparisons between overflights, and allows the data to be manipulated in ways that it was unable to be done in the past. The current software solution is to use CSV files to view the overflight opportunities.

Description: This software provides a new capability for landed Mars assets to perform forward link relay through the Mars Express (MEX) European Union orbital spacecraft. It solves the problem of standardizing the relay interface between lander missions and MEX. The Mars Operations Relay Service (MaROS) is intended as a central point for relay planning and post-pass analysis for all Mars landed and orbital assets. Through the first two phases of implementation, MaROS supports relay coordination through the Odyssey orbiter and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). With this new software, MaROS now fully integrates the Mars Express spacecraft into the relay picture. This new software generates and manages a new set of file formats that allows for relay request to MEX for forward and return link relay, including the parameters specific to MEX. Existing MEX relay planning interactions were performed via email exchanges and point-to-point file transfers. By integrating MEX into MaROS, all transactions are managed by a centralized service for tracking and analysis. Additionally, all lander missions have a single, shared interface with MEX and do not have to integrate on a mission-by mission basis. Relay is a critical element of Mars lander data management. Landed assets depend largely upon orbital relay for data delivery, which can be impacted by the availability and health of each orbiter in the network. At any time, an issue may occur to prevent relay. For this reason, it is imperative that all possible orbital assets be integrated into the overall relay picture.

Description: Mars Relay operations currently involve several e-mails and phone calls between lander and orbiter teams in order to settle on an agreed time for performing a communication pass between the landed asset (i.e. rover or lander) and orbiter, then back to Earth. This new application aims to reduce this complexity by presenting a visualization of the overpass time ranges and elevation angle, as well as other information. The user is able to select a specific overflight opportunity to receive further information about that particular pass. This software presents a unified view of the potential communication passes available between orbiting and landed assets on Mars. Each asset is presented to the user in a graphical view showing overpass opportunities, elevation angle, requested and acknowledged communication windows, forward and back latencies, warnings, conflicts, relative planetary times, ACE Schedules, and DSN information. This software is unique in that it is the first of its kind to visually display the information regarding communication opportunities between landed and orbiting Mars assets. The software is written using ActionScript/FLEX, a Web language, meaning that this information may be accessed over the Internet from anywhere in the world.