Driving on the Surface of Mars with the Rover Sequencing and Visualization Program

Operating a rover on Mars is not possible using teleoperations due to the distance involved and the bandwidth limitations. Instead, rovers are autonomous and go about their operations in an unsupervised mode. To operate these rovers requires sophisticated tools to make operators knowledgeable of the terrain, hazards, features of interest, and rover state and limitations, and to support building command sequences and rehearsing expected operations. The primary requirement is to rapidly convey the optimal level of situational awareness to the operators to support daily cycles of operations and commanding. This paper discusses how the Rover Sequencing and Visualization Program and a small set of associated tools support this requirement.