More Bacon: increasing science return

In a recent blog I wrote, Bringing Back The Science Bacon,  one of the things I talk about is increasing the science returns of a mission by doing some data processing on the mission robot, before it sends back information.  If a computer has the ability, and the trade-offs gathering data, processing it into information, available computer throughput and bandwidth of the data channel are favorable for processing, data can be processed into information and the mission may return more relevant science.

Some great examples come from the Mars Exploration Rovers.  NASA/JPL has managed to operate the rovers for over seven years.  We've sent up a number of software updates to both rovers.  Updates include new capabilities, and new ways to look for science.

Here's another great example of increasing the science return by doing a little more processing on-board.  The rovers already have some autonomy, with abilities to detect and plot ways around obstacles.  By increasing autonomy, the AEGIS package gives the rovers the ability to detect targets of interest to science, and adjust their courses to investigate.  (Dear Editors of Aerospace-Technology.com - as orbiting entities, the Mars Rovers have very low orbits...)

This is exiting.  Among other things, AEGIS will enable the rovers to return science we would otherwise have missed.  In the old model, the rovers drive along, sometimes for extended periods, only taking and returning samples we tell them to.  With AEGIS, the rovers can now "sense" that a given object is scientifically interesting, decide to visit it, and return photos so the scientists can decide if it warrants a visit.  This is how NASA accelerates science.

And talk about a mission getting the bang for it's bucks?  This three month mission is 7 years into it's calendar, and is experimenting with ways to increase the science it currently returns, and science returns for future missions.  Very cool!