Progress in development of an intelligent landing system for europa CL24_5527.pdf

Progress in development of an intelligent landing system for europa and other planetary bodies

1. Progress on Development of an Intelligent Landing
System for Europa and Other Planetary Bodies
Andrew Johnson, Anup Katake, Jim Butler, Timothy Setterfield, Po-Ting Chen
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
10/8/2024
Pre-DecisionalᵭInformationᵭ–ᵭForᵭPlanningᵭandᵭDiscussionᵭPurposesᵭOnly

2. S.M. MacKenzie et al., Enceladus Orbilander: A Flagship Mission Concept
for Astrobiology
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20205008712
J.ᵭBrophyᵭetᵭal.,ᵭAssessingᵭCeres’ᵭ
Past and Current Habitability,
DOI:
10.1109/AERO53065.2022.9843248
Human Mars Entry, Descent, and
Landing Architecture Study: Rigid
Decelerators, Tara Polsgrove et al,
https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2018-5192

3. Example Benefits of ILS: Mars Illustration
3
ILS can operate up to tau 3.0 and any time of day, so there
are many more launch opportunities and smaller rockets
become viable
SRLᵭELViSᵭrequiresᵭtheᵭsunᵭbeᵭaboveᵭ25˚ᵭandᵭtauᵭ<ᵭ0.8
LVS limit
(k=0.8)
Mars ILS
limit (k=3.0)
Icarus Vol. 329
solar longitude L
s
Eberswalde Crater Korolev Crater
SRL 2031 ”Porkchop” Plot
Potential Future Landing Sites
Mars Dust Cycle

4. Intelligent Landing System Con-Ops
4
50km
5km
500m
Altimetry
from Single
Beam
Map Relative
Localization
(MRL) from Lidar
Contour
Map Relative
Localization from
Coarse Scan
Lidar Odometry
from Coarse
Scans
Landing Hazard
Detection and
Safe Site
Selection
Lidar Odometry
from Fine Scans
Altimetry
Contour
MRL
Scan MRL Scan Odometry
Safe Site
Selection
position error ~ 100m
altitude error ~ 10m
position error ~ 10m
altitude error ~ 1m
velocity error ~ 1m/s
altitude error ~ 0.1m
velocity error ~ 0.1m/s
probability of detection > 99%
T. P. Setterfield, R. A. Hewitt, P. T. Chen, C. L. Marcus, and N. Trawny, doi:
10.1109/AERO50100.2021.9438153.
Surface Relative State
Estimation Throughout
Lidar Modes
single beam: high altitude altimetry
coarse scans: low resolution large area mapping
fine scans: high resolution small area mapping
High Performance Space Computer
•8x 64bit RISC-V Processor Cores
•Time Sensitive Networking
•Eval Board available Q1-2025

5. Europa Lander Lidar (ELSA)
5
Anup B. Katake, Alejandro San Martin, Eli Skulsky, Fred Serricchio, Nikolas Trawny, Ivelin Bakalski and Roman Machan: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-2204
indoor at 35m
Flat
calibration
board
range noise
~2.7cm
JPL Mesa Testing: May 2023
Building is at 360m range
•Performance
–Wide dynamic range of operation with a single
sensor
•Altimetry from 10km to 10m
•3D mapping from 5km to 500m
–High resolution 3D mapping: 4Mpixels in ~1s
•regional scale at 5km: 1km x 1km DEM 5m pixels
•lander scale at 500m: 100m x 100m DEM with 5cm
pixels
–Extreme radiation tolerance
•1.3Mrad TID behind 100mil Al, 300krad inside vault
•Robust to high electron flux and secondary
particles
•Flight System
–Green laser with Photo-multiplier Tube detection
–Fast steering mirror with inertial motion correction
[2026]
–Data acquisition, DEM creation and transfer in 2s
–Mass <9kg including shielding, 40x25x25cm
–76W altimetry, 300W peak when imaging
•Testing in 2023
–Static testing on JPL Mesa
–Dynamic testing at representative altitudes on
helicopter
Helicopter Field Test: Dec 2023
Altitude 325m, GSD 3.25cm/pixel

6. ELSA Helicopter Field Tests: Anza Borego
12/2023
6
Riegl LRF
Camera1
Camera2
Kestrel LRF
Applanix
GPS/INS
Antennas
IMU
Airbus A-Star AS350B3E with
AF200 nose-mount

7. 7
Altitude: 325m
GSD:
3.25cm/pixel

8. Example Safe Site Selection with ELSA

9. Example Active TRN with ELSA
9

10. Intelligent Landing System Development Path
10
Software Testbed Linux workstation (WSTS)
QEMU
ILSS
IMU ModelLidar Model
S/C Traj and NavTruth Maps
IPC
Hardware Testbed Real-time Workstation
HPSC CE ILSS
IMU ModelLidar Model (GPU)
S/C Traj and NavTruth Maps
TSN
Ethernet
Field Test
HPSC CE
Vehicle/gimbal
IMULidar
Lidar Hazard Detection
Lidar Area MRL
ILS Main Lidar Odometry
Lidar Contour MRL
TSN
Ethernet
Spacewire
422
Ground Truth
FY25
FY26
FY25
Lidar Hazard Detection
Lidar Area MRL
ILS Main Lidar Odometry
Lidar Contour MRL
Lidar Hazard Detection
Lidar Area MRL
ILS Main Lidar Odometry
Lidar Contour MRL
TRL4
TRL5
TRL6