An Approach to Fault Management Design for the Proposed Mars Sample Return EDL and Ascent Phase Architectures

The Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign aims to bring Martian regolith samples back to Earth. JPL is currently developing the Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) to receive the samples collected by the Perseverance rover and launch them into Mars orbit using a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) for future Earth retu...

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Main Author: Mao, Cici
Other Authors: Cahoy, Kerri
Format: Thesis
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2024
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/155424
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author Mao, Cici
author2 Cahoy, Kerri
author_facet Cahoy, Kerri
Mao, Cici
author_sort Mao, Cici
collection MIT
description The Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign aims to bring Martian regolith samples back to Earth. JPL is currently developing the Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) to receive the samples collected by the Perseverance rover and launch them into Mars orbit using a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) for future Earth return. The telecommunications delay from Earth to Mars requires autonomy on-board the spacecraft for different phases of the mission like Entry, Descent \& Landing (EDL) and MAV Launch given limited possible operator intervention. Fault protection (FP) encapsulates these autonomous system behaviors, which aim to protect the spacecraft by limiting or detecting and responding to anomalies. In order to provide sufficient coverage to the possible faults a system may encounter, multiple FP analyses are needed to identify and analyze the fault set of a system to guide future design iterations. This thesis focuses on three tools: Fault Containment Region (FCR), Failure Mode Effects \& Criticality Assessment (FMECA), and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). FCRs are used to identify the boundaries at which faults can occur and propagate in a system, making them useful tools for defining functional boundaries in a system and identifying areas that are single-string, or have no redundancy. FMECAs and FTAs use a bottoms-up and top-down approach, respectively, to identify possible faults and the associated consequences and impacts of each anomaly; together, these tools provide a comprehensive fault set to be used in FP architecture design. Using these tools demonstrates how FP design factors into engineering trades – monitoring or additional redundancy adds additional cost and complexity – and thus the results of these analyses need to be used iteratively with the system design to determine the best approach. As such, it’s shown that a majority of EDL and MAV Launch elements are single-string, and while there are opportunities of adding redundancy in EDL sensors, there are few options for MAV Launch given its engineering constraints. While both phases have little redundancy, the option space for EDL is better known given JPL’s multiple successful past landings. Future work should conceptualize possible areas of added redundancy to the MAV to lower overall mission risk.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1554242024-06-28T03:50:13Z An Approach to Fault Management Design for the Proposed Mars Sample Return EDL and Ascent Phase Architectures Mao, Cici Cahoy, Kerri Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics The Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign aims to bring Martian regolith samples back to Earth. JPL is currently developing the Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) to receive the samples collected by the Perseverance rover and launch them into Mars orbit using a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) for future Earth return. The telecommunications delay from Earth to Mars requires autonomy on-board the spacecraft for different phases of the mission like Entry, Descent \& Landing (EDL) and MAV Launch given limited possible operator intervention. Fault protection (FP) encapsulates these autonomous system behaviors, which aim to protect the spacecraft by limiting or detecting and responding to anomalies. In order to provide sufficient coverage to the possible faults a system may encounter, multiple FP analyses are needed to identify and analyze the fault set of a system to guide future design iterations. This thesis focuses on three tools: Fault Containment Region (FCR), Failure Mode Effects \& Criticality Assessment (FMECA), and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). FCRs are used to identify the boundaries at which faults can occur and propagate in a system, making them useful tools for defining functional boundaries in a system and identifying areas that are single-string, or have no redundancy. FMECAs and FTAs use a bottoms-up and top-down approach, respectively, to identify possible faults and the associated consequences and impacts of each anomaly; together, these tools provide a comprehensive fault set to be used in FP architecture design. Using these tools demonstrates how FP design factors into engineering trades – monitoring or additional redundancy adds additional cost and complexity – and thus the results of these analyses need to be used iteratively with the system design to determine the best approach. As such, it’s shown that a majority of EDL and MAV Launch elements are single-string, and while there are opportunities of adding redundancy in EDL sensors, there are few options for MAV Launch given its engineering constraints. While both phases have little redundancy, the option space for EDL is better known given JPL’s multiple successful past landings. Future work should conceptualize possible areas of added redundancy to the MAV to lower overall mission risk. S.M. 2024-06-27T19:52:27Z 2024-06-27T19:52:27Z 2024-05 2024-05-28T19:37:10.887Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/155424 0000-0003-4388-8663 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright retained by author(s) https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Mao, Cici
An Approach to Fault Management Design for the Proposed Mars Sample Return EDL and Ascent Phase Architectures
title An Approach to Fault Management Design for the Proposed Mars Sample Return EDL and Ascent Phase Architectures
title_full An Approach to Fault Management Design for the Proposed Mars Sample Return EDL and Ascent Phase Architectures
title_fullStr An Approach to Fault Management Design for the Proposed Mars Sample Return EDL and Ascent Phase Architectures
title_full_unstemmed An Approach to Fault Management Design for the Proposed Mars Sample Return EDL and Ascent Phase Architectures
title_short An Approach to Fault Management Design for the Proposed Mars Sample Return EDL and Ascent Phase Architectures
title_sort approach to fault management design for the proposed mars sample return edl and ascent phase architectures
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/155424
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