Autonomous robotics is driving Perseverance rover's progress on Mars.

NASA's Perseverance rover uses robotic autonomy to achieve its mission goals on Mars. Its self-driving autonomous navigation system (AutoNav) has been used to evaluate 88% of the 17.7-kilometer distance traveled during its first Mars year of operation. Previously, the maximum total autonomous distance evaluated was 2.4 kilometers by the Opportunity rover during its 14-year lifetime. AutoNav has set multiple planetary rover records, including the greatest distance driven without human review (699.9 meters) and the greatest single-day drive distance (347.7 meters). The Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) system analyzes wide-angle imagery onboard to autonomously select targets for observations by the SuperCam instrument, a multimode sensor suite capable of millimeter-scale geochemical and mineralogical analysis. AEGIS enables observations of scientifically interesting targets during or immediately after long drives without the need for ground communication. OnBoard Planner (OBP) is a scheduling capability planned for operational use in September 2023 that has the potential to reduce energy usage by up to 20% and complete drive and arm-contact science campaigns in 25% fewer days on Mars. This paper presents an overview of the AutoNav, AEGIS, and OBP capabilities used on Perseverance.

Public health, climate, and economic impacts of desulfurizing jet fuel.

In jurisdictions including the US and the EU ground transportation and marine fuels have recently been required to contain lower concentrations of sulfur, which has resulted in reduced atmospheric SO(x) emissions. In contrast, the maximum sulfur content of aviation fuel has remained unchanged at 3000 ppm (although sulfur levels average 600 ppm in practice). We assess the costs and benefits of a potential ultra-low sulfur (15 ppm) jet fuel standard ("ULSJ"). We estimate that global implementation of ULSJ will cost US$1-4bn per year and prevent 900-4000 air quality-related premature mortalities per year. Radiative forcing associated with reduction in atmospheric sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium loading is estimated at +3.4 mW/m(2) (equivalent to about 1/10th of the warming due to CO(2) emissions from aviation) and ULSJ increases life cycle CO(2) emissions by approximately 2%. The public health benefits are dominated by the reduction in cruise SO(x) emissions, so a key uncertainty is the atmospheric modeling of vertical transport of pollution from cruise altitudes to the ground. Comparisons of modeled and measured vertical profiles of CO, PAN, O(3), and (7)Be indicate that this uncertainty is low relative to uncertainties regarding the value of statistical life and the toxicity of fine particulate matter.