Science Autonomy for Rover Subsurface Exploration of the Atacama Desert

This, coupled with limited bandwidth and latencies, motivates onboard autonomy that ensures the quality of the science data return. Increasing quality of the data involves better sample selection, data validation, and data reduction. Robotic studies in Mars-like desert terrain have advanced autonomy for long distance exploration and seeded technologies for planetary rover missions. Specific capabilities include instrument calibration, visual targeting of selected features, an onboard database of collected data, and a long range path planner that guides the robot using analysis of current surface and prior satellite data.