Frank R. Hartman
California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Papers
10
Total Citations
184
H-Index
6
About
Frank R. Hartman is a pioneering robotics engineer and mission operations specialist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose career has centered on the commanding, visualization, and surface operations of Mars rovers. Best known as one of NASA's elite "rover drivers," Hartman has played a central role in navigating robotic explorers across the Martian surface, contributing expertise spanning multiple landmark missions including Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Science Laboratory, and Mars 2020 Perseverance. Hartman's most influential work focuses on the Opportunity rover's operations at Meridiani Planum, with two closely related papers accumulating over 100 combined citations, documenting the challenges and strategies of driving a robot across another planet. He has been instrumental in developing the Rover Sequencing and Visualization Program (RSVP), a sophisticated software suite enabling precise command planning, rehearsal, and validation for planetary robots. His contributions extend to groundbreaking coordinated operations between the Ingenuity helicopter and Perseverance rover — humanity's first aircraft-rover partnership on another world. With work spanning nearly two decades of Mars exploration and reaching into lunar surface testbed development, Hartman represents a rare blend of hands-on operational expertise and technical innovation that has fundamentally shaped how humanity explores planetary surfaces remotely.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 9Lunar Surface Operation Testbed (LSOT)3 citations · 2012
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