"The design of the rover ground control system, or ground segment, depends on the scientific and operational goals of the rover, which are not yet final, so the ground system is still evolving," says Chesson. "In principle, the basic telemetry and telecommand functions would be essentially the same as now, but it will have significantly new capabilities to allow for the rover's autonomous functioning."

The ground control system will at least require computing facilities to enable high-level mission planning tools and to allow monitoring of the rover's digital terrain and 3D modelling, ground path and trajectory planning, on-ground simulation and tight integration with the payload control and scientific operations.

"Classic direct control methods just won't work when we operate on the surface of Mars in an unstructured environment and with a significant signal time delay, says Reinhold Bertrand," a planning engineer and robotics expert at ESOC. "ExoMars will require a change in culture; we have to 'let the child walk on its own' while we develop a truly interdisciplinary operations concept."

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Contact: Jocelyne Landeau-Constantin
jocelyne.landeau-constantin@esa.int
49-06-151-2696
European Space Agency
11-Jul-2006