DaedalusNAV: A software package to display immersive images of lunar caves
- Paper number
IAC-24,A3,IP,114,x82859
- Author
Dr. Vito Fortunato, Planetek Italia, Italy
- Coauthor
Mrs. Carmela Agnese De Donno, Planetek Italia, Italy
- Coauthor
Mr. Marco Mucci Beltrami, Planetek Italia, Italy
- Coauthor
Mr. Leonardo Amoruso, Planetek Italia, Italy
- Coauthor
Mr. Luigi Agrimano, Planetek Italia, Italy
- Coauthor
Dr. Cristoforo Abbattista, Planetek Italia, Italy
- Year
2024
- Abstract
The discovery in 2009 of a skylight in Marius Hills during the SELENE-Kaguya mission made it necessary to establish the existence, formation processes, size, and stability of cavities below the lunar surface produced by lava flows known as lava tubes. There is only indirect evidence of the presence of lunar lava tubes while their existence on Earth is known. The presence of lava tubes would have a great impact not only for scientific and geological study but also for human exploration of the Moon. Such cavities would effectively be protected from micro-meteoritic bombardment and ionizing radiation, as well as having a limited temperature range, making them a (relatively) safe place to colonize. These reasons led to the idea of exploring the skylight and the lunar lava tubes using a spherical robot (DAEDALUS) hosting two main payloads: a pair of LIDARs and a stereoscopic immersive camera (DaedalusCAM). With these two complementary payloads, it will be possible to completely map the entire skylight during the robot's descent and later the potential lava tube. Starting from this exploration vision, a team of industrial and scientific partners, composed of Planetek, INAF, POLIMI, and UNIPD, proposed through an ASI tender to explore and increase the capabilities of the DaedalusCAM immersive camera designed by INAF. The call successfully won and recently the Italian National Space Agency (ASI) funded the development of the software for displaying the immersive image of a lunar cave. The Daedalus robot is planned to descend the skylight by the top aperture using a crane (also part of the CDF study). During the descent, it is planned to frame 400 images both in panoramic and scientific modes. While the scientific arm records a portion of the skylight with colored (optical filters) capabilities, the panoramic (engineering) arm will completely sample the cave with stereoscopic capabilities. Indeed, due to the presence of four panoramic lenses, each point in the cave wall is seen by (at least) two cameras. This large number of images, although in a relatively low resolution, must be displayed to make them useful also for scientific exploration, other than simultaneous localization and motion (SLAM) useful during the descent robotic operations. The deployment and later integration on a space-qualified platform of the developed s/w macro-packages will be supported through the use of a SW framework developed by the Planetek team characterized by capabilities that make it ideal for execution on board exploration rovers
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-24,A3,IP,114,x82859.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.