Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Incorporating Lessons Learned from Past Missions for InSight Activity Planning and Sequencing

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Space Operations: Inspiring Humankind's Future

  • 1077 Accesses

Abstract

The NASA’s InSight mission will place a lander on Mars in November 2018. During the first 90 days after landing on Mars, InSight will deploy two primary instruments on the surface: a seismometer and a heat probe. InSight will be operated daily at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) during this time with a strict tactical timeline of 10 h. To support this rapid turnaround, significant automation is being developed to decrease human effort and increase operational efficiency. During tactical operations, science planning on InSight will be performed using the JPL APGen planning software, along with a novel Graphical User Interface (GUI) developed specifically for InSight, SPImaster. Every JPL mission invariably develops its own software for surface operations. This results in missions with smaller development budgets, such as the Phoenix lander mission, developing or utilizing operations software which is difficult to work with, resulting in issues during the lifetime of the mission. Fortunately, InSight has taken a more multi-mission approach in the development of the operations software and has been able to create software with all of the necessary features found on larger Flagship missions, at a fraction of the cost. The project has been able to do this by investing in multi-mission software tools and sharing code with other missions, such as the Europa Clipper project. Building off of the lessons learned from the Phoenix lander, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), and Mars Exploration Rover (MER) missions, InSight developed a multi-mission system design, from which both small and large projects can learn. This paper, which derives material from a paper the authors delivered at the SpaceOps 2018 conference (Ridenhour et al. in 2018 SpaceOps Conference, SpaceOps Conferences (AIAA 2018-2552), 2018 [1]), describes the InSight planning software and compares its use to planning software developed for the MSL, MER, and Phoenix missions. All included figures are reproduced here with the permission of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the publishers of the transactions of SpaceOps.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Abbreviations

AMMOS:

Advanced Multi-Mission Operations System

APGen:

Activity Plan Generator

APSS:

Auxiliary Payload Sensor Suite

CNES:

National Centre for Space Studies

DLR:

German Aerospace Center

DSL:

Domain-Specific Language

GUI:

Graphical User Interface

HP3:

Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe

ICC:

Instrument Context Camera

IDA:

Instrument Deployment Arm

IDC:

Instrument Deployment Camera

IDS:

Instrument Deployment System

IFG:

InSight FluxGate

InSight:

Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport

IOT:

Instrument Operations Team

JPL:

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

KOP:

Keeper of the Plan

LMS:

Lockheed Martin Space

MAPGEN:

Mixed-Initiative Activity Plan Generator

MER:

Mars Exploration Rover

MMPAT:

Multi-Mission Power Analysis Tool

MRO:

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

MSL:

Mars Science Laboratory

MSLICE:

MSL InterfaCE

NASA:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

ODY:

2001 Mars Odyssey

ORT:

Operational Readiness Test

PEL:

Power Equipment List

PUL:

Payload Uplink Lead

RAVEN:

Resource and Activity Visualization Engine

RISE:

Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment

SAP:

Science Activity Planner

SCT:

Spacecraft Team

SEIS:

Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure

SEQGEN:

Sequence Generator

sol:

Martian day (approx. 40 min longer than an Earth day)

SPI:

Science Plan Integrator

SPIFe:

Scheduling and Planning Interface for Exploration

SPImaster:

Science Plan Integration master

TEM-A:

Active Thermal Measurement Suite

TEM-P:

Passive Thermal Measurement Suite

TWINS:

Temperature and Wind for InSight Suite

VCS:

Version Control System

WTS:

Wind and Thermal Shield

References

  1. Ridenhour, F. L., Lawler, C. R., Roffo, K., Smith, M., Wissler, S. S., & Maldague, P. (2018). InSight cruise and surface operations: Integrated planning, sequencing and modeling using APGen. In 2018 SpaceOps Conference, SpaceOps Conferences, (AIAA 2018-2552).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Yana, C., Kerjean, L., Sylvestre-Baron, A., Baroukh, J., Nonon, M., Laudet, P., et al. (2014). Operations of the seismometer (SEIS) onboard the 2016 InSight mission to Mars. In SpaceOps 2014 Conference, SpaceOps Conferences, (AIAA 2014-1914). https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2014-1914.

  3. Chattopadhyay, D., Mishkin, A., Allbaugh, A., Cox, Z. N., Lee, S. W., Tan-Wang, G., & Pyrzak, G. (2014). The mars science laboratory supratactical process. In SpaceOps 2014 Conference, SpaceOps Conferences, (AIAA 2014-1940). https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2014-1940.

  4. Maldague, P. F., Wissler, S. S., Lenda, M. D., & Finnerty, D. F. (2014). APGEN scheduling: 15 years of experience in planning automation. In SpaceOps 2014 Conference, SpaceOps Conferences, (AIAA 2014-1809). https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2014-1809.

  5. Needels, L. (2002). Multi-mission sequencing software. In SpaceOps 2002 Conference, SpaceOps Conferences. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2002-T2-67.

  6. Marquez, J., Ludowise, M., McCurdy, M., & Li, J. (2010). Evolving from planning and scheduling to real-time operations support: Design challenges. In 40th International Conference on Environmental Systems, International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES). https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2010-6282.

  7. Fox, J. M., & McCurdy, M. (2007). Activity planning for the phoenix mars lander mission. In Aerospace Conference, 2007 IEEE (pp. 1–13).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Ko, A., Maldague, P. F., Page, D., Bixler, J., Lever, S., & Cheung, K. (2004). Design and architecture of planning and sequence system for mars exploration rover (MER) operations. In Space OPS 2004 Conference, SpaceOps Conferences. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2004-356-434.

  9. McCurdy, M. (2009). Planning tools for Mars surface operations: Human-computer interaction lessons learned. In Aerospace Conference, 2009 IEEE (pp. 1–12).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Arash, A., Bachmann, A., Bresina, J., Greene, K., Kanefsky, B., Kurien, J., et al. (2006). Planning applications for three Mars missions with ensemble. In International Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Space.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of those whose contributions have been acknowledged. This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The author would like to thank Chet Joswig, James Biehl, Natalie Rezek, and Dylan Stewart for their insights into the development of MSL planning software and processes, Matthew Keuneke for sharing his knowledge regarding the MER planning software and processes, and Kenneth Fujii for his information about the Phoenix planning software and processes. The author would also like to thank Pauline Hwang, James Hazelrig, Shaheer Khan, and Christopher Wells-Weitzner for their comments which greatly improved the paper.

Copyright 2018 California Institute of Technology. US Government sponsorship acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91106, USA

    Forrest Ridenhour, C. Lawler, K. Roffo, M. Smith, S. Wissler & P. Maldague

Authors
  1. Forrest Ridenhour
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. C. Lawler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. K. Roffo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. S. Wissler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. P. Maldague
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Forrest Ridenhour .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Direction du Numérique, de l'exploitation et des Opérations, Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales—CNES, Toulouse, France

    Helene Pasquier

  2. Payload and Mission Operations, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, USA

    Craig A. Cruzen

  3. German Space Operations Center, DLR—German Aerospace Center, Wessling, Bayern, Germany

    Michael Schmidhuber

  4. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Young H. Lee

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ridenhour, F., Lawler, C., Roffo, K., Smith, M., Wissler, S., Maldague, P. (2019). Incorporating Lessons Learned from Past Missions for InSight Activity Planning and Sequencing. In: Pasquier, H., Cruzen, C., Schmidhuber, M., Lee, Y. (eds) Space Operations: Inspiring Humankind's Future. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11536-4_25

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11536-4_25

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11535-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11536-4

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation