Abstract. The Mars Pathfinder mission required new capabilities and adaptation of existing capabilities in order to support science analysis and flight operations requirements imposed by the in situ nature of the mission. The Science Data Processing Systems Section of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was responsible for the design, development, and application of the system required to perform telemetry processing, distribution, and archiving of data from the four primary science instruments, and support of flight operations through production of automatically generated stereo and color mosaics, terrain visualizations, and animations. The system developed for Mars Pathfinder incorporated new capabilities in producing computer-generated color mosaics, for cataloging and distribution of science data, and utilized new display technology to support science analysis and flight operations requirements. This paper describes the data processing performed to support the science and operations payload on the Pathfinder lander and Sojourner rover. records and associated ancillary data, enabling parameterbased queries and retrieval using a Web-based system called the MPF Navigator. Remote science users were able to access the data via a JPL-developed capability called the File Exchange Interface, or FEI. FEI supports either individual queries or a subscription service that transfers data records that meet prespecified criteria directly to subscriber sites as it is entered into the database.Systematic processing included mosaic production, production of stereo data products, including rover terrain visualizations and anaglyphs, specific image products for use as press releases, and animation and rendering of data visualization products. Specific data products were transferred to individual science teams, to the flight operations team, and to the Sojourner operations team, to a central Web server used to support public access to released data via the Internet, and to a specific Web site used by the press to access press release information. Data were released in a variety of digital and analog formats.The remainder of this paper describes the processing performed in each area shown in Figure 1. The processing was performed utilizing facilities within the MIPL and the Digital Image Animation Laboratory (DIAL). DIAL is a system that is interfaced electronically with the MIPL facility and digital mission databases maintained by MIPL. DIAL includes specialized equipment for production of science visualization and animation data products.

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The design of the Cassini Remote Terminal Interface Units (RTIUs) had to change to meet the requirements for support of the Cassini tour of the Saturnian system. The science instrument teams used the RTIUs, purchased in the early 1990s, both before and after launch. Since the Cassini prime mission does not end until 2008, the original RTIUs would have been required to last at least fifteen years. When the requirements on the RTIUs changed after launch, the design of the RTIU had to change as well. This paper will describe the history of the RTIUs on the Cassini project, how the need for an upgrade was identified, why management approved the task, why the Cassini instrument teams agreed to upgrade their systems, how the design of the software was improved and why these improved RTIU capabilities should be designed, built and integrated into the flight Mission Operations System before launch.In their simplest form, the RTIUs are used in the science instrument test beds to connect the engineering model (EM) of the instrument to its Ground Support Equipment (GSE) computers. They send commands from the GSE computers to the EM and return telemetry. The RTIUs appear to the instrument to be the Cassini spacecraft's Command and Data Subsystem (CDS) and to the GSE computer to be the tail end of the Cassini Ground Data System (GDS).Before launch, the RTIUs were used to build and test the science instruments, to integrate the instruments onto the spacecraft and, to write and test both instrument flight and ground software. During flight, the RTIUs have been used for science planning, sequence development, instrument flight software development, instrument flight software testing and anomaly resolution.There were originally three different implementations of RTIU used on the project. Two of the designs were made at the JPL. The third was a public domain implementation from outside the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In addition, some of the instruments had constructed their own special purpose hardware that was integrated with their RTIU. The initial motivation for an upgrade post-launch was simply to replenish the RTIU hardware. At that time, the majority of Cassini's ground computers were being replenished, so the RTIUs were included in that task. We could not simply replace the RTIU hardware with new components because neither of the two RTIUs from JPL had viable software development environments. A hardware replenishment usually requires a change in operating system version, interface cards and drivers. So, the software would have needed to be recompiled if not modified. This would have been difficult for the JPL-built RTIUs. The RTIU software from outside NASA was still being actively developed, so that was, at least initially, an option as a replacement. Downloaded by 41.251.71.197 on June 21, 2016 | http://arc.aiaa.org |