The DLR Autonomous Navigation for the MMX Rover Under Phobos Environmental Influences: Illumination, Temperature, and Radiation

Abstract

The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) is set to examine the Martian Moons Phobos and Deimos. As part of this mission, a small rover named IDEFIX will explore the surface of Phobos as the first in situ system. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) develops the onboard autonomous navigation solution NAVDLR as a technology demonstration and also to increase the safety of rover driving operations. The harsh Phobos environment challenges the autonomous navigation due to its illumination conditions, the temperatures, and the radiation environment, especially as there remains a high uncertainty about the environmental parameters. This paper presents our approach to simulate varying and challenging environment effects on existing, representative data sets. We analyze the robustness of our autonomous navigation solution in relation to these conditions. Our results demonstrate that a loss of tracking can occur for challenging scenarios, but NAVDLR generally provides accurate and robust results. Finally, we propose mitigation techniques to reduce loss of tracking risk and improve navigation robustness.