Planetary Exploration

EXOMARS
ExoMars is the first mission of the ESA program Aurora to enter the final development and realization phase. The ExoMars mission is composed of two parts: 

  • 2016 Mission (ESA lead) with a Russian launch of a satellite (TGO Trace Gas Orbiter) toward Mars with the scope to identify areas with presence of CO2. Always in the 2016 Mission it is foreseen the descent of a demonstrator on the planet surface.
  • 2018 Mission, always with a Russian launch of a carrier module and a descent module bringing on Mars surface the ESA developed ExoMars rover. The ExoMars Rover, after the egress phase from the landing module, will perform a series of technological (drill, locomotion) and scientific activities on the Mars surface. One of the scientific objectives is the research of trace of life on Mars.

For the 2016 mission:

  • Proton launcher
  • The satellite TGO (Trace Gas Orbiter)
  • An Entry Descent and Landing Demonstrator

For the 2018 mission:

  • Proton launcher
  • A skycrane (for the landing of the two rovers)
  • The European rover

For both missions the MOC will be at ESOC and the ground control systems will include the Roscosmos Deep Space Network and the ESA ESTRACK. In the 2018 Mission the rover operations will be managed by the Rover Operation Control Center (ROCC), located in ALTEC.

The picture contains an overview of the elements involved in the missions:
The figure reported hereafter represents the ESA rover:
The robotic rover will have the ability to operate autonomously in order to optimize available resources and maximize the scientific return that is also bound by the time window in which the mission will be accomplished. The robot, in fact, can only operate during the Martian day and will operate on the Martian surface in accordance to the  mission planning defined on ground in the ROCC, in order to reach different points to perform the scientific activities.
For more on EXOMARS click here (ESA Site).
 

The Exomars 2018 mission is organized in the following phases :

  • B Design Phase
  • C Development and Qualification Testing Phase
  • D Flight Model Development and Acceptance Testing Phase
  • E1Launch Campaign, Launch , LEOP and Near-Earth Checkout
  • E2 Cruise Phase Operations
  • E3 Mars Orbit Insertion, Mars Orbit Operations and Mars Entry, Descent and Landing
  • E4 Surface Operations Nominal Mission
  • E5&6 Surface Operations Extended Mission

Constrained by launch fixed date (2018).
ALTEC has the responsibility to design, build and operate the control center for the ExoMars rover (Rover Operations Control Centre – ROCC) located at ALTEC. In addition to that ALTEC will perform remote support during launch, LEOP and Interplanetary cruise. The ROCC will host a team of engineers and scientists and will be the Centre which will be held in all the activities of operational control, engineering support and preliminary scientific analysis relevant to the operations of the rover on the Martian surface.  It will be connected to other elements of the ground segment including: 

  • ESOC/MOC, via ESOC MOC Data System, during the surface operations to receive and transmit Rover data through the ESA Orbiter Data relay.
  • ESAC, to archive the Scientific data for long term archiving
  • Scientific Community remote sites to dispatch scientific data during mission
In ALTEC has been implemented an area for Mars terrain simulation, the so called Mars & Moon Terrain Demonstrator (MMTD), where the Rover models will be operative to verify some performance aspects, to evaluate possible command options and to support the analysis of anomaly situation potentially occurring on Martian surface.
Considering the importance of the ExoMars mission and the attention born into the adventure of the robotic exploration, ALTEC will develop initiatives and projects from the Control Centre in order to increase the interest of young people into scientific and technological issues as potential future stakeholders (scientists, engineers) of space missions.
 

STEPS
The STEPS programme is one of the three activities part of the “Piedmont Aerospace District” subject of the request for proposal issued by the Regione Piemonte under the funding for Research and Innovation. STEPS is focused on the horizon of the exploration – robotic and human – of the Universe and  is intended to produce a series of technological demonstrators (both virtual and physical) finalized to the development of systems for soft landing (Lander) and surface mobility (Rover) applicable to both robotic and human missions. STEPS foresees also the realization and utilization of a set of laboratories equipped for tele-operations, of tools for concurrent design, simulation and virtual reality and of Moon and Mars simulated environments. The following picture provides a schematic view of development process from conceptual design up to the demonstrators’ development.

 
Two technological reference scenarios are proposed to set a working framework for the STEPS technologies roadmaps: 

  • A human mission to the Moon – to perform extensive surface exploration moving from a fixed base
  • An automated return mission from Mars – to validate the required technologies to enable human missions to the red planet.
The ALTEC activities are mainly addressed to the following topics : 

  • Contribution to the development of technologies for ambient reconnaissance including 3D software reconstruction
  • Contribution to the development of technologies for navigation and control
  • Contribution to the development of infrastructure for the ambient modeling
  • Contribution to the development of human machine interface approach
  • Contribution to the physical demonstrators

In the frame of STEPS project, a Mars Moon Terrain Simulator has been developed. This terrain simulator will be used to perform testing and verification activities of the developed elements in particular for the pressurized rover.

HUMAN & ROBOTIC EXPLORATION BROCHURE (pdf)
PHOTO CREDITS; ESA/Thales Alenia Space