A method for multiple fault isolation: Application to the rendez-vous phase of the Mars Sample Return mission

This paper presents a formalized diagnosis technique for the isolation of multiple faults occurring in the orbiter´s measurement unit of the Mars Sample Return mission. The Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission is a flagship mission undertaken jointly by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). The goal is to return tangible samples from Mars atmosphere and ground to Earth for analysis. A key feature of the proposed method is that available hardware-based fault indicating signals are judiciously used with analytic-based fault indicating signals in order to construct the fault diagnosis scheme. The main advantage of the technique is that the number of fault indicating signals is guaranteed to be minimal for the given isolation task. The proposed method is based on logical tools derived from the set theory. Simulation results from a ”high-fidelity” industrial simulator demonstrate that the proposed method is able to diagnose multiple faults.