BEES For Mars Status Report, July 22, 2003 | Field Reports

BEES For Mars Status Report, July 22, 2003

Despite significant flight time constraints because of weather conditions, the BEES for Mars team has met several of their objectives for the HMP 2003 field season.

On Saturday July 19th, a small radio-controlled (RC) fixed-wing airplane was used to acquire wireless video imaging data for three sites: the "Fortress" rock formation, dry lake region around the Hamilton-Sundstrand rock, and the Marine Point ridge. Numerous imaging passes were performed with video being acquired with a downward-pointing fisheye lens. One additional site is planned for this basic imaging exercise.

On Monday, July 21, a first flight was achieved with the BEES for Mars primary flight vehicle - a small autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developed by MLB, Inc. This fully-autonomously mission was performed using a predefined flight plan and GPS navigation - with the exception of a manual landing by the safety pilot due to concern over high winds and rock hazards at the landing site.

Downward as well as forward-looking imaging data was recorded using this flight platform. This imagery was fed in real time through a ground-based image recognition system that was programmed to recognize a ground target placed by the team (an orange tarp simulating a terrain feature of interest). When recognized, the ground station uploaded an updated plan that directed the UAV back to the target location where a drop probe with a wireless video camera was released over the "terrain feature of interest" and parachuted to the ground.

Imagery data from the drop probe, and two aircraft will be post-processed back at Ames Research Center (ARC) to extract out qualitative and quantitative information about the Haughton/Devon Island sites.

Additional flights with both fixed-wing vehicles, as well as a small RC coaxial helicopter, are planned over the next few days on Devon Island, prior to the team's return to ARC.

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