Chapter 1
Introduction

Maestro is a publicly available version of the tool used by scientists to plan daily activities for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover mission. With Maestro, you can view pictures taken by the rover. You can also select driving destinations and points of interest where you want to take your own pictures.

Maestro contains a simplified menu of commands that you can use to create your own driving and science activities, using all of the rover’s instruments to enact your own day of mission operations. You are in the driver’s seat...what will be next place we will explore on Mars?

(Note: The Athena science payload (Pancam, MI, Mini-TES, APXS, MB, RAT) is arguably the most sophisticated instrument suite that has yet operated on the surface of Mars. Although Maestro provides activities for the instruments in the Athena science payload, these activities are highly simplified compared to the actual way these instruments are commanded during mission operations.)