- Activity: A low-level planning construct that describes a specific action
or set of actions that the user wishes the rover to execute. Activities
contain arguments, which are set to specify exactly how the rover should
accomplish the action. Activities are contained within Observations.
- APXS: The Alpha Particle Xray Spectrometer, one of the IDD instruments
for detailed compositional analysis of rocks and soils.
- azimuth: Direction of facing, as in a compass heading. For sites, zero
degrees points north and the azimuth angle increases through 360 degrees
in the clockwise direction.
- browser: One of the two main SAP windows, the Uplink Browser and the
Downlink Browser.
- color composite image: a color image that is generated by combining
several images together to form the red, green, and blue channels.
- Details dialog: A companion window of the Uplink browser that allows the
user to view and edit the details about the selected Observation, Activity,
Feature, or Target.
- elevation: Direction of tilt, as in when you nod your head. Zero degrees
is looking straight ahead, and the elevation angle increases through 90
degrees looking straight up and decreases through -90 degrees looking
straight down.
- Feature: A label for an object or region on Mars. A Feature refers to an
object, such as a rock, cliff, or patch of soil as a whole. Features contain
Targets, which refer to a specific location within the Feature.
- Footprint: A box or circle drawn in a SAP downlink view that indicates
the area that is expected to be imaged by the currently selected Activity.
Described in detail is section 4.3.3.
- Hazcam (Front and Rear): Stereo camera pairs located at the front and
rear of the rover that are used for assessing reachable arm instrument
targets and also for automatic obstacle avoidance during rover drive
activities.
- header (of an image, also PDS header): archived mission data products
have an attached header that describes the image, the state of the
spacecraft at the time of acquisition, and other related information.
- IDD: The Instrument Deployment Device. The instrument arm, located
on the front of the rover and carries the MI, APXS, Moessbauer, RAT
instruments for detailed in situ (close range) analysis of rocks and soils.
- LOD: Level of Detail. This term is typically used in the context of high
or low LOD modeling and footprints, described in section 4.3.3.
- Mini-TES: The Mini Thermal Emission Spectrometer. Located in the body
of the rover and looking up through the PMA like a periscope, Mini-TES
can see the surroundings in the infrared spectrum. Using this infrared
spectral data, mineral composition of rocks, soil, and other geological
formations can be determined from a distance to identify scientifically
interesting destinations to drive to and examine up close.
- MI: The Microscopic Imager camera. Located on the instrument arm
(IDD), the MI can take extremely close up images of soil or rock surfaces
by extending the arm and placing the camera up close (~2 cm).
- Moessbauer: The Moessbauer (or Mössbauer) spectrometer, one of the
IDD instruments for detailed compositional analysis of rocks and soils.
This instrument excels at detecting iron-bearing minerals.
- monoscopic camera: a single camera or instrument (as opposed a stereo
camera pair).
- Navcam: The Navigation Camera. A stereo camera pair that is lower
resolution than Pancam but is useful for quickly characterizing the
topograhy of a site with 3D images to support the planning of rover drives
(traverses) and approaches to nearby rock and soil targets of interest.
- Observation: A high level planning construct that contains a group of
Activities. Observations contain detailed intent information that describe
why the activities they contain are being proposed.
- Pancam: The Panoramic camera. Located on the mast (PMA), Pancam
is a high-resolution narrow field of view stereo camera pair capable of
capturing color and 3D images using 16 color filters (8 filters per eye).
Pancam also tracks the position of the Sun as an aid to navigation.
- pixel coordinates: the location of a pixel in an image, denoted (i,j).(0,0)
is the upper-left pixel, i increases to the right and j increases down.
- PMA: The Pancam Mast Assembly. The mast that pans and tilts the
camera bar to aim the Pancam, Navcam, and Mini-TES at remote targets.
- position: A minor driving destination of the rover. Positions are
automatically defined as the rover drives from one site (major destination)
to the next. Position 0 is always co-located with the site.
- RAT: The Rock Abrasion Tool. One of the IDD instruments, used for
grinding down into the unweathered interior of rocks to compare the inner
composition and structure with the outer weathered surface.
- resource modeling: The task of estimating the impact of a set of Activities
on the resources available to the rover on Mars. Examples of resources
include energy, time, and downlink capacity.
- site: A major driving destination of the rover. Site 0 is on the lander and
new sites are declared from mission control as the rover completes each
major drive activity. Sites are almost always characterized by a partial
or full panorama of images to establish the vehicle’s local context in the
surrounding terrain.
- sol: a Martian day (24 hours and 39.5 minutes of Earth time).
- stereo camera pair: Two cameras positioned adjacent to each other (as
human eyes are arranged) to acquire 3D imagery of a scene
- Target: A label for a specific location on Mars. Targets are contained by
Features, and are used as arguments to Activities.
- xyz coordinates: a three-dimensional location in space. For sites, xyz
indicates position in a coordinate frame where x increases to the north, y
to the east, and z straight down (nadir).
