(Jul 13, 2012)

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) operations team successfully completed the final dress rehearsal operational readiness test (ORT) on July 13th. At this ORT, mission personnel tested the team's readiness for entry decent and landing, commonly referred to as the seven minutes of terror, as well as, the transition to ground operations. This was preceded by the final landing day release of MSLICE, the integrated planning tool developed in collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Lab. MSLICE(Mars Science Laboratory InterfaCE), is used to visualize the data gathered from the red planet, and allows scientists to identify places of interest and then develop, model, and validate the rover's plan. Ames' contribution to MSLICE focuses on the mission's activity planning process, allowing mission personnel to securely contribute from their home institutions. The planning software ensures that mission scientists can work closely with rover and instrument engineers to create a plan that is both safe for the rover to perform and maximizes scientific research. The Human Systems Integration division (TH) and the Intelligent Systems division (TI) at NASA's Ames Research Center collaborated to design and develop the planning and scheduling software for MSLICE.