The Enhanced Lander Vision System for Mars Sample Return Lander Entry Descent and Landing

As part of the Mars Sample Return Campaign, the Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) would receive a set of Martian rock samples collected by the Perseverance rover and send them into Mars orbit for later recovery and return to Earth. SRL is being designed to perform pin-point landing within 60m of a pre-selected landing target without relying on a landing Doppler radar sensor. Building on the successful landing of Perseverance that demonstrated terrain relative navigation using the Lander Vision System (LVS), SRL’s Enhanced Lander Vision System (ELViS) would function as the primary integrated navigation sensor system during Entry, Descent, and Landing. ELViS would provide horizontal position, altitude, and 3D velocity estimates to the Guidance and Control system, from the heading alignment subphase of hypersonic entry to 50m altitude above the ground. This paper describes the ELViS preliminary flight design for SRL, including concept of operations, hardware, and software architecture, as well as the expected navigation performance.