Data Science on Mars

On 30 July 2020 NASA launched the Mars 2020 mission from Earth carrying a rover called Perseverance, and rotorcraft called Ingenuity, to land on and study Mars. The mission so far has been a resounding success, touching down in Jezero Crater on 18 February 2021, and sending back data and imagery of the Martian landscape since then.

The aim of the mission is to advance NASA's scientific goals of establishing if there was ever life on Mars, what its climate and geology are, and to pave the way for human exploration of the red planet in the future. Ingenuity will also demonstrate the first air flight on another world, in the low-density atmosphere of Mars approximately 1% of the density of Earth's atmosphere.

The efforts involved are an impressive demonstration of the advances and expertise of the science, engineering, and project teams. Data from the mission will drive new scientific insights as well as prove the technical abilities demonstrated throughout. Of particular interest is the Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) system that enables autonomous landing of missions on planetary bodies like Mars, being so far away that we cannot have ground communications on Earth in the loop.

We talk with Prof. Paul Byrne, a planetary geologist from North Carolina State University, about the advances in planetary science and what the Mars 2020 mission means for him, his field of research, and for humankind.

Further Reading and Resources

• Website: Profile page for Prof. Paul Byrne at the Center for Geospatial Analytics at NCSU (https://bit.ly/3gkP4vD via ncsu.edu)
• Website: Mars 2020 (https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/)
• Paper: Mars 2020 Science Definition Team Report (https://go.nasa.gov/3x5d6AF via nasa.gov)
• Video: Perseverance Rover's Descent and Touchdown on Mars (https://bit.ly/32o6248 via youtube)
• Website: Lunar rocks and soils from Apollo missions (https://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/)
• Article: Terrain Relative Navigation (https://go.nasa.gov/2RMd9RZ via nasa.gov)
• Paper: A General Approach to Terrain Relative Navigation for Planetary Landing (https://bit.ly/3mXCN1z via aiaa.org)
• Video: Terrain Relative Navigation, NASA JPL (https://bit.ly/2QCcTEB via youtube)
• Video: Studying Alien Worlds to Understand Earth (https://bit.ly/3tpZ1f3 via youtube)

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