Planning for a Martian Road Trip - The Mars2020 Mobility Systems Design
Richard Rieber, Michael McHenry, Philip Twu, Michael M. Stragier
Abstract
The Perseverance rover landed in Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021, marking the beginning of an epic road trip across Mars. The guiding principle of the Perseverance rover design was to replicate Curiosity, except for when the new mission objectives mandated a change. The scientific objectives require that Perseverance drive more quickly and more efficiently through more complex terrain than its predecessors. The mobility system for Perseverance exemplifies this, in that key portions are identical, yet others have had major upgrades. Key upgrades include more tractive and more robust tires, new engineering cameras, a new computer dedicated for image processing, and a more efficient AutoNav software suite. This paper will follow how the scientific objectives led to the key and driving mobility requirements and how these requirements were decomposed at the different subsystems.