NASA Presents Software of the Year Award

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Sonja Alexander 202-358-1761
NASA Headquarters, Washington
sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov

Priscilla Vega 818-354-1357
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2011-380 December 8, 2011

NASA Presents Software of the Year Award

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-380&cid=release_2011-380

PASADENA, Calif., – Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS), novel
autonomy software that has been operating on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity since
December 2009, is NASA's 2011 Software of the Year recipient.

The AEGIS software, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.,
autonomously directs Opportunity's cameras to interesting science targets. AEGIS was developed to
enhance the usual targeting process involving scientists on the ground, which can require the rover
to stay in the same place for a day or more while data are transmitted to Earth and targets are
selected from preliminary images.

With AEGIS, the rover software analyzes images onboard, detects and prioritizes science targets in
those images, and autonomously obtains novel, high-quality science data of the selected targets,
within 45 minutes, with no communication back to Earth required. AEGIS chooses science targets
based on pre-specified criteria set by the mission science team.

AEGIS can be used as soon as the rover reaches a new area and is especially beneficial during and
after long drives. It enables high-quality data to be collected more often and in a significantly
reduced time frame. The incorporation of AEGIS in the Mars Science Laboratory flight software is
in progress, and it is also being considered for future NASA missions.

The AEGIS capability was developed as part of a larger autonomous science framework called
OASIS (short for Onboard Autonomous Science Investigation System), which is designed to allow a
rover to identify and react to serendipitous science opportunities. The AEGIS system takes
advantage of the OASIS ability to detect and characterize interesting terrain features in rover
images. This technology was created with assistance from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project
and with funding from the New Millennium Program, the Mars Technology Program, the JPL
Research and Technology Development Program, the JPL Interplanetary Network Development
Program and the Intelligent Systems Program.

JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information on AEGIS, visit: http://aegis.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

For additional information on the Mars Explorations Rovers, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and
http://marsrover.nasa.gov/home/index.html For more information on Mars Science Laboratory,
visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

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