Power-Conscious Planning: Navigating Energy Constraints in Mars Rover Operations

As the SOWG Chair for Sol 513, I spent the day planning activities for the rover, which will mainly focus on capturing a full set of MAHLI images of its wheels. These images will be taken in between short drives to allow for the entire surface of the wheels to be imaged. Despite the power requirements of these activities, we were still able to include some post-drive scientific tasks in the plan. This included an active measurement of hydrogen below the surface using DAN, a cloud search using Navcam, and the necessary imaging to plan targeted observations for Sol 514.

Due to the power constraints, we had to ensure that we didn’t drain the rover’s battery too much. The planning process had to start earlier than usual as command sequences needed to be sent to the rover by 5 PM Pacific time. Although it wasn’t as early as my previous day when it was still dark out during my commute, it was still a busy and productive day planning for the rover’s activities on Sol 513.