Abstract
To date, Mars robotic landing site selection has been a compromise between scientific interest and safety. Due to the rather large landed footprint major axis lengths of the Viking, Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers, and Phoenix missions, these landed ellipses have been placed in vast, relatively flat areas to ensure a high probability of landing success. Scientists are interested in exploring more geologically interesting areas that may contain landing hazards, including sloping terrain, craters, and rocks. Smart Divert is a new entry, descent, and landing architecture that could allow robotic missions to safely land in hazardous terrain without the requirement of hypersonic guidance. Smart Divert consists of a ballistic entry followed by supersonic parachute deployment. After parachute release, the vehicle diverts to one of many predefined, fuel-optimal safe zones. Smart Divert performance and entry design is discussed and is followed by a discussion of Smart Divert for random terrain. An initial assessment of optimal landing site arrangement is performed and an example of the usefulness of Smart Divert is performed for actual Mars terrain using Phoenix landing site rock count data.
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