Processing and analysis of Mars Pathfinder science data at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Science Data Processing Systems Section

The Mars Pathfinder mission required new capabilities and adaptation of exi sting capabilities in order to support science analysis and flight operatio ns requirements imposed by the in situ nature of the mission. The Science D ata Processing Systems Section of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was respons ible for the design, development, and application of the system required to perform telemetry processing, distribution, and archiving of data from the four primary science instruments, and support of flight operations through production of automatically generated stereo and color mosaics, terrain vi sualizations, and animations. The system developed for Mars Pathfinder inco rporated new capabilities in producing computer-generated color mosaics, fo r cataloging and distribution of science data, and utilized new display tec hnology to support science analysis and flight operations requirements. Thi s paper describes the data processing performed to support the science and operations payload on the Pathfinder lander and Sojourner rover.