NASA Lunar Robotics for Science and Exploration

2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference (AERO)

Selected in 2019 as a NASA SIMPLEx mission, Lunar Trailblazer is in implementation for flight system delivery at the end of 2022. The mission's goal is to understand the form, abundance, and distribution of water on the Moon and the lunar water cycle. Lunar Trailblazer also collects data of candidate landing sites to inform planning for future human and robotic exploration of the Moon and evaluate the potential for in situ resource utilization. Lunar Trailblazer's two science instruments, the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM 3) and the Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM) provide simultaneous high-resolution spectral imaging data to map OH/water, crustal composition, and thermophysical properties from a 100±30 km lunar polar orbit. The ~210-kg flight system deploys from an ESPA Grande and utilizes a ~1000 m/s ΔV hydrazine chemical propulsion system, similar to that employed by GRAIL. Trailblazing elements include the novel state-of-the-art dataset collected at substantially reduced price point, fully geographically co-registered data products delivered to the Planetary Data System, planetary mission team demographics, Caltech campus mission operations, and student staffing of select mission ops roles. Lunar Trailblazer's pioneering development is providing key lessons learned for future planetary small spacecraft.

1 st Space …, 2005

A novel ASI Lunar mission is here proposed by a task force of Ph.D. students. After 14 th January 2004 president G.W Bush's speech, a new input to space human exploration has been given. The Moon, thanks to nearness to Earth, is identified as an important test bed for all future human missions. The task force LUME mission has been designed to fit with Italian technological capabilities leaving it open anyway for international cooperation. Three main module are foreseen: a lunar low altitude polar orbiter, a lander near the "peak of the eternal light" and a rover. The polar orbiter is equipped with a complete suite of experiments for remote sensing observation (high resolution color camera, VIS-NIR imaging spectrometer, neutron and X spectrometers and SAR radar). This will provide a lunar surface map in high spatial resolution at different wavelengths: the orbiter payload will be used both to refine the selection of the landing site and to support the rover navigation. The lander will reach the region of "peak of the eternal light", located in the South Pole-Aitken

1st Space Exploration Conference: Continuing the Voyage of Discovery, 2005

A novel ASI Lunar mission is here proposed by a task force of Ph.D. students. After 14 th January 2004 president G.W Bush's speech, a new input to space human exploration has been given. The Moon, thanks to nearness to Earth, is identified as an important test bed for all future human missions. The task force LUME mission has been designed to fit with Italian technological capabilities leaving it open anyway for international cooperation. Three main module are foreseen: a lunar low altitude polar orbiter, a lander near the "peak of the eternal light" and a rover. The polar orbiter is equipped with a complete suite of experiments for remote sensing observation (high resolution color camera, VIS-NIR imaging spectrometer, neutron and X spectrometers and SAR radar). This will provide a lunar surface map in high spatial resolution at different wavelengths: the orbiter payload will be used both to refine the selection of the landing site and to support the rover navigation. The lander will reach the region of "peak of the eternal light", located in the South Pole-Aitken

Space Science Reviews, 2010

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was implemented to facilitate scientific and engineering-driven mapping of the lunar surface at new spatial scales and with new remote sensing methods, identify safe landing sites, search for in situ resources, and measure the space radiation environment. After its successful launch on June 18, 2009, the LRO spacecraft and instruments were activated and calibrated in an eccentric polar lunar orbit until September 15, when LRO was moved to a circular polar orbit with a mean altitude of 50 km. LRO will operate for at least one year to support the goals of NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD), and for at least two years of extended operations for additional lunar science measurements supported by NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD). LRO carries six instruments with associated science and exploration investigations, and a telecommunications/radar technology demonstration. The LRO instruments are: Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER), Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment (DLRE), Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP), Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND), Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). The technology demonstration is a compact, dual-frequency, hybrid polarity synthetic aperture radar instrument (Mini-RF). LRO observations also support the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), the lunar impact mission that was comanifested with LRO on the Atlas V (401) launch vehicle. This paper describes the LRO objectives and measurements that support exploration of the Moon and that address the science objectives outlined by the National Academy of Science's report on the Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon (SCEM). We also describe data accessibility by the science and exploration community.

2007

NASA’s Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (LPRP), formulated in response to the President’s Vision for Space Exploration, will execute a series of robotic missions that will pave the way for eventual permanent human presence on the Moon. The Lunar Reconnais-sance Orbiter (LRO) is first in this series of LPRP missions, and plans to launch in October of 2008 for at least one year of operation. LRO will employ six individual instruments to

Planetary and Space Science, 2012

The lunar geological record has much to tell us about the earliest history of the Solar System, the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system, the geological evolution of rocky planets, and the near-Earth cosmic environment throughout Solar System history. In addition, the lunar surface offers outstanding opportunities for research in astronomy, astrobiology, fundamental physics, life sciences and human physiology and medicine. This paper provides an interdisciplinary review of outstanding lunar science objectives in all of these different areas. It is concluded that addressing them satisfactorily will require an end to the 40-year hiatus of lunar surface exploration, and the placing of new scientific instruments on, and the return of additional samples from, the surface of the Moon. Some of these objectives can be achieved robotically (e.g. through targeted sample return, the deployment of geophysical networks, and the placing of antennas on the lunar surface to form radio telescopes). However, in the longer term, most of these scientific objectives would benefit significantly from renewed human operations on the lunar surface. For these reasons it is highly desirable that current plans for renewed robotic surface exploration of the Moon are developed in the context of a future human lunar exploration programme, such as that proposed by the recently formulated Global Exploration Roadmap.

Ever since the Clementine and Lunar Prospector mission instrument data indicated the possibility of significant concentrations of hydrogen at the lunar poles, speculation on the form and concentration of the hydrogen has been debated. Should hydrogen or water exist in usable and easily accessible concentrations, this resource could have profound implications on the design and affordability of initial and long-term human Lunar exploration hardware and systems, lunar surface operations and mobility, Earth-Moon transportation, and transportation to Mars and beyond. In particular, the ability to make propellants, life support consumables, and fuel cell reagents can significantly reduce mission cost by reducing launch mass, providing affordable pre-positioning of consumables, and enabling reusability; reduce risk by providing backup life support consumables and reduced dependence on Earth; and enable extended surface operations by providing an energy rich environment and affordable access to multiple surface targets. Even if water is present at the poles, exploration at other locations of interest on the Moon will require different methods of obtaining mission consumables, such as oxygen, and other resources of interest, such as metals and silicon. President

Bulletin of the AAS, 2021

Acta Astronautica, 2018

Returning to the Moon has kept gaining interest lately in the scientific community as a mandatory step for answering a cohort of key scientific questions. This paper presents a novel Lunar mission design to demonstrate enabling technologies for deep-space exploration, in accordance with the Global Exploration Roadmap and the National Research Council. This mission, named ALCIDES, takes advantage of some of the systems that are currently under development as a part of the HERACLES exploration architecture: these include the Orion module, the Space Exploration Vehicle, the Boeing Reusable Lander, the Ariane 6, the Falcon Heavy, the Space Launch System, as well as the Evolvable Deep-Space Habitat placed in EML2. A consistent part of the efforts in designing the ALCIDES mission accounts for innovative exploration scenarios: by analysing state of the art in robotics and planetary exploration, we introduce a mission architecture in which robots and humans collaborate to achieve several tasks, both autonomously and through cooperation. During this mission, high-performance mobility, extravehicular activity and habitation capabilities would be carried out and implemented. This project aims to demonstrate the human capability to live and work in the Lunar environment through the development of a long-term platform. We selected the Amundsen-Ganswindt basin as the landing site for multiple reasons: the possible presence of permanently shadowed regions, its position within the South Pole and its proximity to the Schrödinger basin. The main objectives of the ALCIDES mission are to study the Lunar cold trap volatiles, to gain understanding of the Lunar highlands geology through sampling and in-situ measurements and to study Human-Robotic interactions. In addition, factors such as psychology, legal issues and outreach regarding this mission were also considered. In particular, four traverses connecting the Amundsen crater with the Schrödinger basin were proposed, three of which to be performed by a tele-operated rover, and the remaining one to be carried out by a human crew with rover assistance. During these traverses, the rover will collect samples from several points of interest as well as perform insitu measurements with a suite of instruments on board, helping to locate a convenient place for future human habitation. The ALCIDES mission results will help the scientific community to better understand the Moon and to take advantage of its resources for future space exploration. Gaining this knowledge will allow us to move forward in the development of systems and capabilities for manned missions to Mars and beyond.

2010