Geospatial technologies for Chang’e-3 and Chang’e-4 lunar rover missions

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a brief overview of the geospatial technologies developed and applied in Chang’e-3 and Chang’e-4 lunar rover missions. Photogrammetric mapping techniques were used to produce topographic products of the landing site with meter level resolution using orbital images before landing, and to produce centimeter-resolution topographic products in near real-time after landing. Visual positioning techniques were used to determine the locations of the two landers using descent images and orbital basemaps immediately after landing. During surface operations, visual-positioning-based rover localization was performed routinely at each waypoint using Navcam images. The topographic analysis and rover localization results directly supported waypoint-to-waypoint path planning, science target selection and scientific investigations. A GIS-based digital cartography system was also developed to support rover teleoperation.     

嫦娥3号巡视探测器桅杆的转动角度误差检校

嫦娥3号巡视探测器桅杆的展开机构、偏航机构和俯仰机构在转动过程中存在系统性的偏差,这些误差影响了巡视探测器导航定位、地形恢复和路径规划的精度.针对这一问题,文章提出了一种间接平差模型,通过真实数据试验证明该方法能够用于对嫦娥3号巡视探测器桅杆的转动角度误差进行检校,并且具有很高的精度和稳定性.     

非差误差改正信息的大范围单历元网络差分方法

针对网络差分方法多采用双差模型,但双差模型在实现时不够灵活的问题,提出一种基于非差误差改正信息的大范围单历元网络差分方法。此方法能够克服双差网络差分模型的缺点,用户不需要选择一个参考站作为主参考站,更不需要主参考站的观测数据进行双差组合,从而减少了数据传输量,作业方式更加自由、灵活,且算法简单、作业范围大。大范围区域内的流动站用户利用非差误差改正数进行误差改正,然后可实现单历元网络差分定位。实验表明,该方法可完成大范围单历元网络差分定位,并能够得到分米级精度的定位结果。     

月面巡视器近距离单摄站定位及精度分析

针对巡视探测器在驶离着陆器后近距离状态下的高精度定位需求,该文提出了基于影像的单摄站定位方法,设计了两组不同的实验分别验证空间后方交会迭代法、直接法和线性变换法的稳定性和定位精度。实验结果表明:空间后方交会迭代法具有较好的稳定性和精度,适合用于巡视探测器的近距离定位;在控制点量测精度确定的情况下,算法最终定位精度与巡视探测器至着陆器的距离近似成反比;当有观测条件不好的控制点参与定位时,定位精度会随之降低,剔除该控制点可以提高定位精度。     

Field testing of robotic technologies to support ground ice prospecting in martian polygonal terrain

Polygonal terrain, a landform commonly associated with the presence of ground ice, is widespread throughout the high latitudes on Mars. In this paper, we present the results of field testing a potential mission concept for the robotic prospecting of ground ice in polygonal terrain. The focus of the paper is on the key robotic technologies that could be used to implement the concept and the engineering lessons we learned (as opposed to the specific scientific findings of our field tests). In particular, we have found that a lander- or rover-mounted lidar and a rover-borne stereo camera/ground-penetrating radar suite are two important scientific tools that may be used to help pin-point ground ice prior to subsurface sampling. We field tested some aspects of this mission concept on a previously - unstudied polygonal terrain site on Devon Island in the Canadian High Arctic (a common Mars/Moon analogue site) during the summer of 2008. This unique collaboration between technological and scientific communities has led to a deeper understanding of how such a science-driven mission could actually be implemented robotically.     

玉兔号月球车巡视点矿物丰度及粒径分布高光谱反演

矿物的类型、丰度及其粒径分布对理解月球和行星表面曾经存在过怎样的地质演化过程具有重要的意义。本文提出基于辐射传输模型和稀疏分解模型反演矿物丰度及其粒径分布的方法,利用辐射传输模型计算各矿物端元不同粒径的单次散射反照率以构建解混光谱库,然后基于稀疏分解算法得到在每个可观测像元的端元最优丰度和粒径分布。利用实验室测量数据进行验证,表明本文方法具有较高的精度。最后根据玉兔号月球车的实地测量光谱数据,利用本文方法获得了其矿物的丰度及粒径分布,结果显示,辉石、橄榄石、斜长石、熔融玻璃和钛铁矿的丰度在4个观测点的平均丰度分别为28.1%、4.5%、39%、28%、0.4%,辉石的平均粒径为166.02μm,橄榄石为8.34μm,斜长石为196.31μm,熔融玻璃为44.21μm,一定程度上表明在这些观测点不同矿物对太空风化的响应不同。     

火星陨石和火星表面泥岩中蚀变过程对比研究

火星次生含水蚀变矿物是火星地质历史时期水环境和气候演变历史的真实记录,一直以来都是火星探测、火星陨石研究的重点,是认识火星环境特征和气候演化的重要研究对象。文中对比研究了表土角砾岩NWA7034、火成堆晶岩MIL03346等两块最富蚀变矿物火星陨石,以及Gale撞击坑出露的Sheepbed泥岩3种岩石类型的蚀变程度及其蚀变矿物类型和组合,分析了层状硅酸盐、铁氧化物/氢氧化物、钙硫酸盐等蚀变矿物的成因及环境指示意义。发现这3类岩石的蚀变作用各不相同。火星陨石NWA7034的蚀变作用以氧化和加热作用为主,无蒸发盐类矿物。火星陨石MIL03346的蚀变程度最低,为后期水溶液进入缝隙而引发的,蚀变作用以橄榄石的伊利石化、裂隙和缝隙中填充次生矿物细脉为主。而火星Sheepbed泥岩经历了后期的等化学风化过程(isochemical weathering),次生过程包括成岩蚀变和成岩后蚀变两个阶段。其中,成岩过程中的蚀变以橄榄石蚀变为铁氧化物和蒙皂石矿物为主,成岩后以形成蒸发盐类矿物硫酸钙为主。以上3种岩石蚀变矿物组成差异反映了火星上不同地质背景中、不同气候条件下蚀变过程的复杂性。文中对火星含水矿物及部分典型矿物的形成条件和过程进行系统总结,这对于理解未来火星探测任务、识别含水矿物的形成、揭示火星水环境和地质历史具有重要指导意义。     

DGPS在航空重力测量中的应用

基于DGPS在GT-1A型航空重力系统测量中的应用,针对GPS基站的位置精度和选择展开探讨,并对计算获得的空间重力异常结果进行对比分析。对比结果表明GPS基站所用位置值不同会引起测线空间重力异常的水平误差,相同测线经过水平调整后基本保持一致。GPS基站和移动站的距离长短对测线空间重力异常的局部细节幅值有影响,进行水平调整后相同测线间的内符合总精度为0.3 m Gal左右。     

VRS参考站点形变对流动站定位坐标的影响分析

在国内外,很多地方的网络RTK都采用虚拟参考站(VRS)技术,有些地方建立的CORS网较早,某些基准站会发生一定的形变,针对VRS参考站点形变影响流动站定位坐标的问题,通过理论分析与严密的公式推导,并对VRS系统GPSNET中参考站坐标形变进行仿真试验。结果表明,用户流动站坐标是通过虚拟参考站转接到物理主参考站,即流动站的参考站实际上是物理主参考站,用户流动站坐标变化量与物理主参考站坐标变化量基本一致,并对参考站形变后坐标调整提出方案。     

Evidence for plunging river plume deposits in the Pahrump Hills member of the Murray formation,Gale crater,Mars

Recent robotic missions to Mars have offered new insights into the extent, diversity and habitability of the Martian sedimentary rock record. Since the Curiosity rover landed in Gale crater in August 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory Science Team has explored the origins and habitability of ancient fluvial, deltaic, lacustrine and aeolian deposits preserved within the crater. This study describes the sedimentology of a ca 13 m thick succession named the Pahrump Hills member of the Murray formation, the first thick fine‐grained deposit discovered in situ on Mars. This work evaluates the depositional processes responsible for its formation and reconstructs its palaeoenvironmental setting. The Pahrump Hills succession can be sub‐divided into four distinct sedimentary facies: (i) thinly laminated mudstone; (ii) low‐angle cross‐stratified mudstone; (iii) cross‐stratified sandstone; and (iv) thickly laminated mudstone–sandstone. The very fine grain size of the mudstone facies and abundant millimetre‐scale and sub‐millimetre‐scale laminations exhibiting quasi‐uniform thickness throughout the Pahrump Hills succession are most consistent with lacustrine deposition. Low‐angle geometric discordances in the mudstone facies are interpreted as ‘scour and drape’ structures and suggest the action of currents, such as those associated with hyperpycnal river‐generated plumes plunging into a lake. Observation of an overall upward coarsening in grain size and thickening of laminae throughout the Pahrump Hills succession is consistent with deposition from basinward progradation of a fluvial‐deltaic system derived from the northern crater rim into the Gale crater lake. Palaeohydraulic modelling constrains the salinity of the ancient lake in Gale crater: assuming river sediment concentrations typical of floods on Earth, plunging river plumes and sedimentary structures like those observed at Pahrump Hills would have required lake densities near freshwater to form. The depositional model for the Pahrump Hills member presented here implies the presence of an ancient sustained, habitable freshwater lake in Gale crater for at least ca 10³ to 10⁷ Earth years.