NASA Office of Logic Design

A scientific study of the problems of digital engineering for space flight systems,
with a view to their practical solution.

Workshop: Pyrotechnic Initiators, Applications, and Lessons Learned

A Description of JPL's Mars Exploration Rovers Pyro Subsystem

Barrie Gauthier
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Abstract:

In 2003, NASA/JPL launched two spacecraft that were to land on the surface of MARS. The Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) were each to use 128 NSIs. Nearly 80 NSIs would be fired in the 3 minute Entry, Descent and Landing period alone, with most of the rest being fired in the next couple of hours for final deployment. A straight-forward battery and relay circuit fired each NSI.

A description of the circuitry will include Safe and Arm, redundancy, worst-case analysis, and fail-safe features. Lessons Learned from plasma shorting and using a grounded source power bus will be discussed.

About the Author:

Barrie Gauthier has been working in Spacecraft System Design at JPL since Voyager in the early '70s. Other projects he has been involved in include Galileo, Cassini, Mars Pathfinder, Deep Space 1, and Mars Exploration Rovers. He is currently working on the latest Mars rover, Mars Science Laboratory (2011 launch). His first involvement in Pyro design started with Mars Pathfinder in the early '90s. He is also involved in Grounding and Interfacing design requirements.

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