Concepts for science autonomy during robotic traverse and survey

Future Mars rovers will have the ability to autonomously navigate for distances of kilometers. In one sol a traverse may take a rover into unexplored areas beyond its local horizon. Naturally, scientists cannot specify particular targets for the rover in an area they have not yet seen. This paper analyzes what they can specify: priorities that provide the rover with enough information to autonomously select science targets using its onboard sensing. Several autonomous science operational modes and priority types are discussed. We also introduce a science priority language. A team of scientists was asked to use the language in specifying targets for a teleoperated rover, and qualitative results are reported.