Automated generation of image products for Mars Exploration Rover mission tactical operations

During the period of development prior to the January, 2004 landing of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project's twin robotic vehicles on Mars, mission operations personnel recognized the need for timely generation and delivery of camera image products for rover traverse planning purposes. The task was assigned to the Multimission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL), an element of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). This paper reports on the ensuing design that involved sequentially transporting, or "pipelining", telemetered MER camera image data between disparate computer processes executed in parallel across multiple machine resources. Discussion touches on the fundamental aspects of the system's event-driven processing strategy that provided autonomy in its operation. Overviews of the interconnecting process streams are provided. In the end, it is apparent to the reader that MIPL designed a system of image product generating systems built with robustness to meet rover planning requirements and with sufficient versatility to meet expanding operations needs in short order.