With the successful completion of the April 1999 field test, FIDO is now beginning a new series of experiments. Designed to give the Athena Science Team experience executing key rover tasks, such as maneuvering onto a target and placing the drill in position, these experiments will take place in the Marsyard at JPL over the next few years. The July 1999 Marsyard test was the first of these experiments. It was conducted over two days, simulating 12 sols of activity.
The objective was to test operational scenarios developed by the Athena Science Team. The focus was on identifying drill targets using Pancam and Navcam, traversing to those targets, using Pancam, Navcam, Hazcam, and Bellycam observations to deploy the Mini-Corer to simulate acquiring, confirming, and caching drill cores, and to deploy the arm onto the surface for overnight simulated observations on a best-efforts basis. The links below point to browse data from the test and the WITS sequences sent to command the rover.
Wednesday, July 21
Thursday, July 22