Planetary LakeLander—A Robotic Sentinel to Monitor Remote Lakes

摘要

This field report describes the design and operations of the Planetary LakeLander (PLL) probe and its ground data systems. LakeLander's primary mission is to characterize the physical, chemical, and biological processes occurring in a high‐altitude lake, and how they are being impacted by rapid deglaciation. LakeLander's secondary purpose is to test operation concepts for future exploration of Titan's lakes. The LakeLander probe is a permanently anchored buoy that measures both surface meteorology and water quality parameters in the top 40 m of the water column. The concept of operations calls for the probe to continue collecting and downlinking data through the Andean winter, when the lake is inaccessible; this drives the power system design and forces a strong focus on system reliability, analogous to a space mission. The PLL ground data system provides the central archive of downlinked data. They are structured around a unified data‐sharing web site that includes tools for mapping, data visualization, documentation, and numerical analysis. The web site provides a hub for engaging the science team and enables interdisciplinary collaboration. This report concludes with lessons learned during field deployment and several months of remote operations on the lake. Among the conclusions: (1) the choice to use an off‐the‐shelf profiling system has proven wise; (2) effective maintenance of a long‐lived remote system requires extensive measurement, logging, and display of as many system variables as possible; and (3) the visualization sandbox component of the data‐sharing web site has made numerical analysis of probe data much easier and more accessible to the entire interdisciplinary science team.