Resource Prospector Instrumentation for Lunar Volatiles Prospecting, Sample Acquisition, and Processing

Captain, Janine; Elphic, R. C.; Colaprete, A.; Zacny, K.; Paz, Aaron

doi:10.1061/9780784479971.029

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Although, such a milestone has not yet been achieved, its probability in the near future has been steadily rising. In addition, active efforts are also being made towards exploring the utilization of lunar material towards future infrastructural requirements (e.g., [253][254][255][256]…”

Section: Future Lunar Science and Explorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The New Moon: Major Advances in Lunar Science Enabled by Compositional Remote Sensing from Recent Missions

Dhingra

2018

Geosciences

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Volatile-bearing lunar surface and interior, giant magmatic-intrusion-laden near and far side, globally distributed layer of purest anorthosite (PAN) and discovery of Mg-Spinel anorthosite, a new rock type, represent just a sample of the brand new perspectives gained in lunar science in the last decade. An armada of missions sent by multiple nations and sophisticated analyses of the precious lunar samples have led to rapid evolution in the understanding of the Moon, leading to major new findings, including evidence for water in the lunar interior. Fundamental insights have been obtained about impact cratering, the crystallization of the lunar magma ocean and conditions during the origin of the Moon. The implications of this understanding go beyond the Moon and are therefore of key importance in solar system science. These new views of the Moon have challenged the previous understanding in multiple ways and are setting a new paradigm for lunar exploration in the coming decade both for science and resource exploration. Missions from India, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and several private ventures promise continued exploration of the Moon in the coming years, which will further enrich the understanding of our closest neighbor. The Moon remains a key scientific destination, an active testbed for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) activities, an outpost to study the universe and a future spaceport for supporting planetary missions.

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Section: Future Lunar Science and Explorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The New Moon: Major Advances in Lunar Science Enabled by Compositional Remote Sensing from Recent Missions

Dhingra

2018

Geosciences

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“…The 16 November 2022, launch of the Artemis 1 mission was a significant milestone in the plans of the United States to return humankind to the surface of the Moon. The long-term human presence on the Moon, as envisioned by the Artemis program (NASA, 2020b;Smith et al, 2020), will require autonomous robotics technologies that support in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) in extraterrestrial environments (Colaprete et al, 2017). For example, extracting resources from the lunar soil, such as oxygen and water, will be vital to sustaining humans and building outposts for future missions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-robot cooperation for lunar In-Situ resource utilization

Rocamora¹,

Kiliç

Tatsch

et al. 2023

Front. Robot. AI

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This paper presents a cooperative, multi-robot solution for searching, excavating, and transporting mineral resources on the Moon. Our work was developed in the context of the Space Robotics Challenge Phase 2 (SRCP2), which was part of the NASA Centennial Challenges and was motivated by the current NASA Artemis program, a flagship initiative that intends to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon. In the SRCP2 a group of simulated mobile robots was tasked with reporting volatile locations within a realistic lunar simulation environment, and excavating and transporting these resources to target locations in such an environment. In this paper, we describe our solution to the SRCP2 competition that includes our strategies for rover mobility hazard estimation (e.g. slippage level, stuck status), immobility recovery, rover-to-rover, and rover-to-infrastructure docking, rover coordination and cooperation, and cooperative task planning and autonomy. Our solution was able to successfully complete all tasks required by the challenge, granting our team sixth place among all participants of the challenge. Our results demonstrate the potential of using autonomous robots for autonomous in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) on the Moon. Our results also highlight the effectiveness of realistic simulation environments for testing and validating robot autonomy and coordination algorithms. The successful completion of the SRCP2 challenge using our solution demonstrates the potential of cooperative, multi-robot systems for resource utilization on the Moon.

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“…S. P. Hopper, a hopper robot developed by Intuitive Machines, is planned to hop and land in a small PSR as early as late 2022 or early 2023 (Martin et al., 2022). NASA's Volatile Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) is bound to traverse a series of PSRs in late 2023 (Colaprete et al., 2021). Most notably, the Artemis program will land humans on the south polar surface by ∼2025 somewhere in the so‐called Artemis exploration zone, that is, the region poleward of ∼84°S (NASA, 2020a, 2020b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Future missions and payloads delivered to the Moon, such as VIPER, IM‐2 (S. P. HOPPER and PRIME‐1), PROSPECT, LUPEX, Chandrayaan‐3, LunaH‐Map, IceCube, and Trailblazer (e.g., Colaprete et al., 2021; Ehlmann et al., 2022; Martin et al., 2022), seek to characterize lunar (south) polar volatiles (NASA, 2020a). Volatiles may be concentrated in cold traps within permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) that may not have received sunlight in millions to potentially billions of years (Arnold, 1979; Feldman et al., 2011; Watson et al., 1961).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cryogeomorphic Characterization of Shadowed Regions in the Artemis Exploration Zone

Bickel

Moseley

Hauber

et al. 2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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The Artemis program will send crew to explore the south polar region of the Moon, preceded by and integrated with robotic missions. One of the main scientific goals of future exploration is the characterization of polar volatiles, which are concentrated in and near regions of permanent shadow. The meter‐scale cryogeomorphology of shadowed regions remains unknown, posing a potential risk to missions that plan to traverse or land in them. Here, we deploy a physics‐based, deep learning‐driven post‐processing tool to produce high‐signal and high‐resolution Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera images of 44 shadowed regions larger than ∼40 m across in the Artemis exploration zone around potential landing sites 001 and 004. We use these images to map previously unknown, shadowed meter‐scale (cryo)geomorphic features, assign relative shadowed region ages, and recommend promising sites for future exploration. We freely release our data and a detailed catalog of all shadowed regions studied.

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Resource Prospector Instrumentation for Lunar Volatiles Prospecting, Sample Acquisition, and Processing

Cited by 5 publications

References 9 publications

The New Moon: Major Advances in Lunar Science Enabled by Compositional Remote Sensing from Recent Missions

The New Moon: Major Advances in Lunar Science Enabled by Compositional Remote Sensing from Recent Missions

Multi-robot cooperation for lunar In-Situ resource utilization

Cryogeomorphic Characterization of Shadowed Regions in the Artemis Exploration Zone

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