Table 1.
Key Mars-Forward Capabilities Incorporated and Evaluated during BASALT-2
| Category | Capability | Features and Functions | BASALT-2 Implementation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-EVA: EVA Planning | EVA traverse planning | Precursor imagery similar to current best-available for Mars and traverse planning software for designing EVA planned traverses | Google Earth imagery at 0.15 m/pix, multispectral imagery at 2.0 m/pix, and DEM at 10 m/pix imported into xGDS and SEXTANT to generate planned traverses (Marquez et al.,2019) |
| EVA timeline planning | Precursor imagery similar to current best-available for Mars and timeline planning software to estimate EVA phase durations | Google Earth imagery at 0.15 m/pix, multispectral imagery at 2.0 m/pix, and DEM at 10 m/pix imported into xGDS, SEXTANT, and Playbook to generate planned EVA phase durations (Marquez et al.,2019) | |
| Planned traverse path optimization | Optimization of planned traverses by minimization of cost function based on, e.g., terrain slope and projected crewmember metabolic cost | SEXTANT use of 0.03–0.22 m DEMs and a metabolic energy expenditure model to calculate optimal path (i.e., no nontraversable slopes and minimal energy expenditure); optimal path displayed via Google Earth on EV wrist display and in xGDS for IV/MSC (Marquez et al.,2019) | |
| Intra-EVA: Voice and Text Communi-cation | Voice comm.: EV crew ↔ IV crew | Real-time voice communication among EV and IV crewmembers | EV and IV wore monaural, noise-cancelling earbuds with boom mics; real-time voice comm. was transmitted across the BASALT comm. network (Miller et al.,2019) |
| Voice comm.: IV crew ↔ MSC | Time-delayed voice communication between IV crew and MSC personnel | IV and CAPCOM/SCICOM wore monaural, noise-cancelling earbuds with boom mics; time-delayed voice comm. was transmitted across the BASALT comm. network (Miller et al.,2019) | |
| Voice transmission: EV/IV conversation → MSC | Time-delayed transmission of EV/IV crew conversations to MSC | Time-delayed transmission of EV/IV crew conversations to MSC were sent across the BASALT comm. network (Miller et al.,2019) | |
| Text comm.: IV crew ↔ MSC | Time-delayed text messaging communication between IV crew and MSC | Time-delayed text messages between IV crew and MSC were exchanged via Playbook Mission Log (Marquez et al.,2019) | |
| Intra-EVA: Video, Still Imagery, and Scientific Instrument Data from the Field | Video from EV crew chest-mounted camera | Chest-level video footage transmitted from field to IV workstation (real-time) and MSC (time-delayed) for contextual and close-up applications | EV crew wore chest-mounted video cameras (1920 pix × 1080 pix resolution, 70.5° hFOV × 43.3° vFOV, 30 frames/s), which transmitted footage to IV workstation and MSC (bandwidth permitting) across the BASALT comm. network (Miller et al.,2019) |
| Mobile SA video with position and orientation tracking | Mobile SA video footage of EV crew in their environment transmitted to IV workstation (real-time) and MSC (time-delayed); position and orientation tracking of SA camera; camera at a height of ∼3–4 m, with pan-tilt-zoom capabilities, and able to be controlled remotely by IV | FST manually followed EV crew with SA video camera (1920 pix × 1080 pix resolution, 70.5° hFOV × 43.3° vFOV, 30 frames/s) mounted on ruggedized, lightweight tripod at height of ∼1–2 m. Footage was sent to IV workstation and MSC (bandwidth-permitting) across the BASALT comm. network (Miller et al.,2019) | |
| High-resolution still imagery | High-resolution imagery transmitted from field to IV workstation (real-time) and MSC (time-delayed) | EV crew used handheld point-and-shoot cameras to capture still imagery at 8 MP (under high-bandwidth conditions) and 3 MP (under low-bandwidth conditions); images were sent to IV workstation (real-time) and MSC (time-delayed) across the BASALT comm. network and automatically imported into xGDS (Brady et al.,2019; Marquez et al.,2019; Miller et al.,2019; Stevens et al.,2019) | |
| Handheld scientific instrument data | Capture thermal imagery, mineral identification, and elemental composition of specific targets in the field, display data to EV crew, and transmit data to IV crew (real-time) | EV crew used handheld FLIR E60 camera (temp range: −20°C to 650°C, sensitivity: 0.05°C, accuracy: ±2°C, thermal image resolution: 320 pix × 240 pix, RGB image resolution: 2048 pix × 1536 pix), ASD Terraspec Halo vis-NIR spectrometer (350–2500 nm), and Bunker Tracer IV-SD XRF spectrometer (reflectance spectra from 350–2500 nm) (Sehlke et al.,2019); EV crew captured still images of FLIR and ASD data screens, which were sent to IV workstations (real-time) and MSC (time-delayed) across the BASALT comm. network and automatically imported into xGDS; raw XRF data was transmitted across the BASALT comm. network to the IV workstation and MSC (Marquez et al.,2019; Miller et al.,2019) | |
| Intra-EVA: EV Crew Support Tools | Navigation aids | Provide EV crew with current position, planned path, actual path, waypoints of interest, and mapped notes | Graphical display (see below) used to show EV crew current position, planned traverse path, actual traverse path, waypoints of interest, and mapped notes from xGDS (Marquez et al.,2019) |
| Graphical display | Graphical display that presents navigation aids, text messages, annotated images, and FOV of EV chest-mounted video camera transmission | iPhone 6 Plus attached to forearm with armband case that displayed Google Earth containing planned and actual traverses, waypoints of interest, and mapped notes, Playbook Mission Log, and TerraDek for viewing of video camera transmission (Miller et al.,2019) | |
| Feature pointer | Physical pointing stick to designate features of interest in the field that provides sense of scale and orientation relative to surrounding terrain | Handheld 1 m long, 1 in. diameter white PVC pipe used by EV crew to point at features of interest in video feeds and still imagery; one end of stick included alternating 2 cm black and white stripes for cm-scale resolution scale bar in imagery; stick used in combination with handheld compass to designate cardinal direction in imagery | |
| Feature marker | Physical marker with unique label to unambiguously mark and identify a terrain feature of interest that incorporates scale bar, color bar, and orientation designator | 3D printed yellow cards (10 cm × 15 cm × 0.3 cm) with candidate sample ID (e.g., AB designating the station [A] and candidate within the station [B]), 2 cm black hash marks for cm-scale resolution scale bar, 18-component grayscale and color bar, and arrow that can rotate to align with cardinal direction (Stevens et al.,2019) | |
| Intra-EVA: IV and MSC Support Tools | Geospatially linked electronic field notes | Electronic field notes captured by IV and MSC that are visible to all and linked geospatially to EV crew positions at the traverse map; time that the note is recorded | xGDS mapped field notes (Marquez et al.,2019) |
| Dynamic leaderboard | Candidate presampling and sampling ranking system that incorporates candidate IDs, measure of strength of each ranking, rationale associated with each ranking, and photos of each candidate | Google Sheet with one row associated with each candidate sample, rows organized by highest to lowest priority, and columns for candidate marker ID, candidate descriptions, candidate photos, and priority ranking rationale (see Fig. 1 in Stevens et al.,2019) | |
| Spatial and temporal synchronization of field data | Spatial and temporal synchronization of EV crew GPS positions, still imagery, instrument data, and field notes | Spatial and temporal synchronization through xGDS and Playbook (Marquez et al.,2019) | |
| Image annotation | Image annotation (e.g., circling features of interest, adding arrows, adding text) by MSC with ability to transmit annotations to EV and IV crew | Still imagery exported out of xGDS and into Microsoft PowerPoint for image annotation; annotated images transmitted as jpg's via Playbook Mission Log (Stevens et al.,2019) | |
| Tactical EVA timeline management | Dynamic EVA timeline for use by IV crew and MSC that displays sequence of planned EVA phases and planned EVA phase durations, records actual phase durations, projects future phase start times based on actual phase durations, displays countdown timers for key deadlines, and provides space for taking notes associated with each EVA phase | Microsoft Excel spreadsheet containing columns for EVA phase durations, planned phase start times, projected phase start times (based on actuals), phase descriptions, notes for each EV crewmember, and running clocks that display current time, PET, phase time remaining, overall EVA time remaining. MSC version also contained countdown timers for when critical pieces of information needed to be sent to IV crew to minimize chances of crew idle time. Clocks and timers were automatically color-coded green and red to display ahead or behind the planned timeline, respectively. | |
| +/− ∼1 m position tracking | Track and display position of EV crew and locations of interest to EV, IV, and MSC to +/− m-level resolution | GPS position tracking of EV crew and terrain features of interest via EV backpack-mounted GPS units transmitting position to xGDS for display to IV/MSC and to Google Earth for display to EV via graphical wrist display (Marquez et al.,2019; Miller et al.,2019) | |
| EVA traverse replanning | Augment precursor data with incoming data from the field to replan EVA traverses | Precursor data plus EV crew verbal descriptions, still imagery, video footage, and scientific instrument data from the field to replan EVA traverses | |
| EVA timeline replanning | Augment precursor data with incoming data from the field and actual EVA phase durations to replan EVA timelines | Precursor data plus projections made by the EV/IV crew and MSC (based on EV crew verbal descriptions, still imagery, video footage, and scientific instrument data from the field plus actual EVA timeline durations as measured by the tactical EVA timeline management tool) to replan EVA timelines | |
| Post-EVA: Archiving | EVA data storage | Organized storage of all voice, text, video, still imagery, instrument data, and field notes | xGDS stored precursor planning data, planned and actual traverses, still imagery, and field notes; Playbook stored planned and actual EVA timelines and time-stamped Mission Log entries; voice and video data stored on separate external server (Marquez et al.,2019; Miller et al.,2019) |
3D: three dimensional, CAPCOM: capsule communicator, DEM: digital elevation model, EV: extravehicular, EVA: extravehicular activity, FLIR: forward-looking infrared, FOV: field of view, GPS: global positioning system, hFOV: horizontal field of view, ID: identifier, IV: intravehicular, MP: megapixel, MSC: mission support center, PET: phased elapsed time (i.e., time since start of EVA), pix: pixel, PVC: polyvinyl chloride, RGB: red, green, blue, SA: situational awareness, SCICOM: science communicator, vFOV: vertical field of view, vis-NIR: visible to near infrared, xGDS: Exploration Ground Data System, XRF: X-ray fluorescence.