Human Surface Mobility Concepts for Lunar Exploration
- Paper number
IAC-08.A5.2.5
- Author
Dr. Nadeem Ghafoor, MDA, Canada
- Coauthor
Ms. Laurie Chappell, MDA, Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. Michael G. Daly, MDA, Canada
- Coauthor
Dr. Nadeem Ghafoor, MDA, Canada
- Coauthor
Dr. Andrew Allen, MDA, Canada
- Coauthor
Mr. Howard Jones, MDA, Canada
- Year
2008
- Abstract
The area of surface mobility is a key architectural component for future human and robotic lunar exploration. Human-rated vehicles will be required for crew and small cargo transport for science and exploration operations, lunar outpost transportation, maintenance tasks and support of unplanned activities. Additionally, mobility - manned or unmanned - may be required to support cargo and habitat relocation, site preparation, base construction and insitu resource utilization, including heavier duty regolith handling & manipulation. In order to be flexible for changing operational requirements, the vehicles should accommodate the full spectrum of autonomy from fully-autonomous navigation through unknown terrain, to direct driving by astronauts using a modular driving human-machine interface, through to teleoperation of the rover system from the lunar base or from Earth. The range of lunar mobility operations, and indeed emerging international architecture plans, indicate that more than one class of vehicle may be required to support human exploration. These could range from the small, agile, sortie-class un-pressurized lunar rover, to the larger robust lunar utility vehicles that could support construction and heavy-duty exploration tasks in addition to human mobility. Both classes would be modular and versatile, with the ability to accommodate changing payload systems, perhaps in the form of towed trailers or other add-on modules, to support a variety of exploration activities. The larger utility vehicles in particular could be based upon open-architecture mobility cores which support modular extensions such as pressurized cabins, science platforms, infrastructure stations (power, communications) or construction / utility systems. This paper examines lunar mobility requirements based on evolving exploration architectures and discusses example concepts for large and small class of human-rated mobility systems. The paper also explores key technical innovations required to support the mobility concepts, including human-rated safety critical autonomy and telerobotic operation, multi-configuration rover traction & terrainability, and modular architecture expansion options.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)