The Athena Rover before upgrades, in the JPL Marsyard.
This task will upgrade the Athena Rover Testbed to operational status. Athena will be used to support current and future JPL robotic technology tasks and robotic flight missions, specifically supporting the technology areas of autonomous navigation, instrument placement mission operations, and related capabilities.
Primary objectives for task include the fabrication, integration, and test of an avionics subsystem including inertial sensors, Fabrication and integration of a camera mast assembly, integration of a manipulator (optional), and adaptation and integration of CLARAty Software. This will create an operational testbed equivalent to FIDO, including compatibility with MSAP avionics.
