Presented by:
Dr. Polly Estabrook
Lead Telecom System Engineer, MER (331))
Abstract
MER's Entry, Descent and Landing is harrowing from the sheer number of
events that must occur autonomously on board the vehicle for landing to be
safely accomplished. In less than 30 minutes, MER morphs from a spacecraft
to an aeroshell, to a complex two-, then three-body form falling furiously
through the Martian atmosphere, to a balloon encased tetrahedron jerked to
a standstill then cut loose to bounce precipitously on the unknown terrain
below. During these breathtaking minutes, telecom's task is to relay enough
information about the spacecraft's state so that its progress through the
metamorphosis can be inferred in real time and reconstructed more precisely
immediately post-EDL.
In this talk the challenges confronting the designers of the MER EDL
telecom system will be discussed and the performance of the Spirit and
Opportunity X band communication links to the Deep Space Network and the
UHF communication links to the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft will be
given. MER animations will be shown to illustrate some of the potential
obstacles facing future EDL system designers.
The Speaker
Polly Estabrook was the lead telecom system engineer for the Mars Exploration Rover. She was responsible for the performance of the MER Entry Descent and Landing telecommunications system and for the overall design and performance of the Direct to Earth and Relay communications system. She is the group supervisor of the Advanced Communications Systems Concepts Group in the Communications Systems and Research Section at JPL.
6 minutes of Terror (mpg - 17mb)
