English

Estimating Scale Discrepancy in Bayesian Model Calibration for ChemCam on the Mars Curiosity Rover

Applications 2020-04-10 v1

Abstract

The Mars rover Curiosity carries an instrument called ChemCam to determine the composition of the soil and rocks. ChemCam uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for this purpose. Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed a simulation capability that can predict spectra from ChemCam, but there are major scale differences between the prediction and observation. This presents a challenge when using Bayesian model calibration to determine the unknown physical parameters that describe the LIBS observations. We present an analysis of LIBS data to support ChemCam based on including a structured discrepancy model in a Bayesian model calibration scheme. This is both a novel application of Bayesian model calibration and a general purpose approach to accounting for such systematic differences between theory and observation in this setting.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2004.04301,
  title  = {Estimating Scale Discrepancy in Bayesian Model Calibration for ChemCam on the Mars Curiosity Rover},
  author = {K. Sham Bhat and Kary Myers and Earl Lawrence and James Colgan and Elizabeth Judge},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.04301},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

21 pages, 10 Figures, submitted to the Annals of Applied Statistics