Canada Moves Towards Flight: Rover GNC Field Trial Results

摘要

For the last decade, MDA has been developing and field testing Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) capabilities that enable rover long-range, fully autonomous navigation in planetary analogue environments. The maturity and robustness of these technologies have been greatly accelerated through multiple field tests. This paper presents the results from recent GN&C field trials in a hard rock quarry near Granby, Quebec, and from CSA Analogue Terrain at CSA Headquarters in Saint-Hubert, Quebec, and highlight MDA GN&C performance during CSA's Mars Sample Return Analogue Deployment in Hanksville, Utah. It also contains discussions on the lessons learned from these field trials, as well as future development towards flight missions.