Mars Relay Operations Service (MaROS): Rationale and Approach

Abstract

NASA has had a constant robotic presence at Mars since the arrival in 2001 of the Mars 2001 Odyssey orbiter. Since January of 2004, the twin Mars Exploration Rovers have explored the Martian surface, relying upon Odyssey and other orbiters to relay the majority of their collected scientific and operational data to Earth. In May of 2008, the Mars Phoenix Lander arrived at Mars and utilized both Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived at Mars in March of 2006, to return its data during the course of its five month mission. The ground operators of all these spacecraft have coordinated the movement of data through this network using a collection of independent software tools. Interfaces between the projects were largely developed organically. Over the last eight years of operating this network, many deficiencies in this software and in the coordination effort itself have been identified that should be corrected prior to the arrival of the next series of spacecraft at Mars. To that end, NASA’s Mars Network Office and the Multimission Ground Systems and Services Program have funded the implementation of a new system to support this network, the Mars Relay Operations Service, or MaROS. It standardizes the interfaces between current and future participants in the relay network, and provides an infrastructure to store and access all relay-related planning and operations data. By centralizing this information in a secure database and by providing appropriate interfaces, automation can be developed to reduce the cost and complexity of performing relay operations. This paper describes the roots of the original relay operations software and outlines the deficiencies inherent therein. It also describes how MaROS will address and rectify each of these deficiencies while laying the foundation for future planning efforts with a service-based infrastructure.