Research/ PLANETARY ROBOTICS
Mars 2020 Perseverance Entry Descent and Landing Simulation Statistical Analysis and Operations
Clara" "O'Farrell, Seth Aaron, P. Daniel Burkhart
Perseverance (Mars 2020)named in title, abstract · Ingenuity Mars Helicopternamed in abstract · Curiosity (MSL)named in abstract
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On February 18, 2021, the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter demonstra- tion landed at Jezero Crater. The Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) architecture, largely the same used to land Curiosity at Gale Crater on August 6, 2012, required high-fidelity flight dynamics simulation with two independent tools to verify per- formance. The process for creating the EDL simulation using the Dynamics Sim- ulator for Entry, Descent and Surface landing (DSENDS) tool will be discussed, along with its use for for independent verification of the EDL statistical analy- sis results and reference trajectory simulation. Analysis and usage details both in development and cruise, along with post-landing assessment of the prediction performance of the simulation, will also be discussed.