Catching up with Perseverance

Embarking on a monumental journey through the cosmos, the Mars rover Perseverance—affectionately dubbed ‘Percy’—has been traversing the alien terrain of the Jezero crater since its triumphant touchdown on the Red Planet. Why is this a big deal for us? Why do I have a Hot Wheels Percy on my desk? Obviously, it’s a big deal in general, one could even say for mankind, but we take immense pride in Camunda’s supporting role in space exploration, and it’s time we caught up with Perseverance’s historic mission.

This presentation by Galen Hollins from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) discusses how NASA uses Camunda as a standards-based solution for managing operational processes across multiple missions and in support of part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP).

Crafted with precision by the experts at NASA’s JPL, Perseverance is a small-car-sized engineering marvel launched into the unknown on July 30, 2020, and JPL confirmed its successful Mars landing on February 18, 2021. As of August 1, 2024, Perseverance has diligently carried out its mission for over 1226 Martian days (sols), translating to roughly three years, five months, and 14 days in Earth time.

Boasting a design lineage that harks back to its rover predecessor, Curiosity, Perseverance arrived with a suite of enhancements and an impressive arsenal of scientific instruments—including nineteen cameras and two microphones—to further our understanding of the fourth planet. Notably, the rover was a delivery system for the Ingenuity (nicknamed Ginny) mini-helicopter, a pioneering aircraft that achieved a historic milestone with the first powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19, 2021. Completing 72 flights in just under three years, it was retired on January 18, 2024, though its legacy continues to inspire.

The rover’s multifaceted mission spans the search for ancient environments that could have supported life, the hunt for signs of past microbial inhabitants, the collection of geological samples for future analysis, and even the production of oxygen from Martian atmospheric CO2—laying the groundwork for the intrepid astronauts who will one day follow in Percy’s tracks.

Camunda and NASA’s JPL

JPL uses Camunda’s Workflow Engine to execute processes that are defined in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), the global standard for process modeling. With Camunda’s native support for BPMN, JPL can automate its most complex processes using an easy-to-adopt visual modeling language and as a standards-based solution to manage operational processes across multiple missions. This service is designed to automate and monitor a variety of tasks, such as scientific data pipelines and other types of automation, which are essential for the productivity and maintainability of JPL’s projects.

Camunda provides a flexible and scalable architecture that can distribute processes across multiple nodes, handling both short and long-running tasks. The system is built to be generic, allowing for a wide variety of workflows. With Camunda, JPL can leverage BPMN to manage its complex data processing pipelines, even 140 million miles (225 million km) from Earth.

For mission data flows, data from spacecraft or rovers is processed into different types of data products using various pipelines. JPL’s Camunda-powered BPMN workflows are then utilized to further process the data and generate products like mosaics and 3D terrains, which are crucial for mission planning and scientific analysis.

The architecture of JPL’s implementation includes a central web server with AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Camunda web applications, REST APIs, and a shared database. This setup allows them to scale up as many workers as needed to meet the workload demands. Additionally, the system has an event-based process initiation architecture, a web interface for monitoring, and security measures in place to protect the data and processes.

Camunda’s monitoring capabilities are heavily utilized to provide a standardized dashboard for status checks on running processes. The system also includes a feature called “Code Snippets,” which allows users to dynamically inject and compile Java code into process definitions and distribute it to all workers in real-time.

Ongoing discovery

Percy has been making remarkable strides on Mars, shedding light on its volcanic past and habitability. The rover has discovered igneous rocks in the Jezero Crater, which are essentially geological time capsules, offering clues about Mars’ history and volcanic activity. These findings suggest that Mars once had conditions suitable for microbial life. Perseverance has also been busy collecting a diverse array of rock and regolith samples with the potential for retrieval and return to Earth by future missions.

Notably, Perseverance has uncovered evidence of an ancient lake at “Wildcat Ridge,” indicating that these sediments were in contact with water for a prolonged period and could have supported life. Additionally, the rover has revealed a more complex and dynamic history of water in the crater than previously understood, suggesting that the presence of water on Mars was not a simple, static feature.

A significant technological milestone was achieved with the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), which successfully generated oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, demonstrating a critical technology for future human exploration.

Perseverance’s onboard microphones have allowed scientists to listen to Martian sounds for the first time. This data reveals that sound travels slower on Mars due to its thin CO2 atmosphere and that atmospheric pressure affects sound volume, leading to seasonal variations and quieter, muffled noises compared to Earth. This haunting and novel auditory data provides a deeper understanding of Mars’ atmospheric dynamics and the rover’s operational environment.

Looking to the future

Percy’s mission is ongoing as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP) and plays a key role in the Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. This campaign is the culmination of the community’s highest Mars exploration priority over the last two decades. The rover is collecting samples from a once water-rich location, significantly enhancing the potential scientific analysis of these samples when they are returned to Earth.

Looking ahead, the MEP is planning for the next two decades of scientific investigations on Mars with a new strategic approach. MEP aims to send lower-cost, high-science-value missions to Mars at a higher frequency. The future plan includes initiatives to expand exploration opportunities through frequent, small, lower-cost missions that produce impactful science, strengthen and broaden Mars’s infrastructure, invest in key technologies to enable expanded access to Mars and make exploration more inclusive to the broader community.

Three primary science themes will continue to guide MEP’s ongoing activities: exploring the potential for Martian life, supporting human exploration of Mars, and discovering dynamic Mars. The program continues to focus on advancing the search for past and present microbial life, understanding habitability over time, preparing for human missions, and studying Mars as a dynamic geological and climatological system.

At Camunda, we are immensely proud to play such an important role in the Perseverance rover’s mission, providing process orchestration that underpins the intricate workflows essential for such a groundbreaking exploration venture. It’s an honor to contribute to humanity’s quest to unveil the mysteries of Mars and search for signs of past life. As Perseverance continues its journey across the Martian landscape, diligently collecting samples and sending invaluable data back to Earth, we at Camunda will be closely monitoring its progress. We eagerly anticipate every new discovery and innovation that emerges from this extraordinary mission. We like to think that our involvement, in some small way, reaffirms our commitment to enabling seamless operations for exploratory feats like Perseverance, which extend our reach into the cosmos.

Godspeed, Perseverance. We’ll always be watching.