Terrain-based Analysis as a Design and Planning Tool for Operations of a Lunar Exploration Rover for the TeamIndus Lunar Mission

Menon, Midhun S.; Kothandhapani, A.; Sundaram, N. S.; Raghavan, Vivek; Nagaraj, Sanath

doi:10.2514/6.2018-2494

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…A key advancement in the field of lunar exploration has been the active participation of the private enterprise, which is probably key to maintaining a sustained presence on the Moon. Several companies, including Team Indus (India), Astrobotics (USA), Moon Express (USA) and ILS (Israel) have made sustained efforts for more than a decade to make private Moon landing a possibility (e.g., [247][248][249][250][251][252]). Although, such a milestone has not yet been achieved, its probability in the near future has been steadily rising.…”

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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“…On a more technical side, the most risky phase of manned missions is entry, descent, and landing (EDL) [ 67 , 68 , 69 ]. Surface knowledge and terrain-based planning are considered critical key factors to ensure mission success [ 70 , 71 ]. By knowing the soil’s geotechnical properties, terrain hazards that compromise the operation of rovers or ISRU equipment can be avoided [ 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geotechnical and Shear Behavior of Novel Lunar Regolith Simulants TUBS-M, TUBS-T, and TUBS-I

et al. 2022

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The return to the Moon is an important short-term goal of NASA and other international space agencies. To minimize mission risks, technologies, such as rovers or regolith processing systems, must be developed and tested on Earth using lunar regolith simulants that closely resemble the properties of real lunar soil. So far, no singular lunar simulant can cover the multitude of use cases that lunar regolith involves, and most available materials are poorly characterized. To overcome this major gap, a unique modular system for flexible adaptable novel lunar regolith simulants was developed and chemically characterized in earlier works. To supplement this, the present study provides comprehensive investigations regarding geotechnical properties of the three base regolith simulant systems: TUBS-M, TUBS-T, and TUBS-I. To evaluate the engineering and flow properties of these heterogeneous materials under various conditions, shear tests, particle size analyses, scanning electron microscope observations, and density investigations were conducted. It was shown that small grains <25 µm (lunar dust) are highly compressive and cohesive even at low external stress. They are particularly important as a large amount of fine dust is present in lunar regolith and simulants (x50 = 76.7 to 96.0 µm). Further, ring shear and densification tests revealed correlations with damage mechanisms caused by local stress peaks for grains in the mm range. In addition, an explanation for the occurrence of considerable differences in the literature-based data for particle sizes was established by comparing various measurement procedures. The present study shows detailed geotechnical investigations of novel lunar regolith simulants, which can be used for the development of equipment for future lunar exploration missions and in situ resource utilization under realistic conditions. The results also provide evidence about possible correlations and causes of known soil-induced mission risks that so far have mostly been described phenomenologically.

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Use of Terrain-Based Analysis in Mission Design, Planning and Modeling of Operations of a Lunar Exploration Rover

Menon

Kothandhapani

Sundaram

et al. 2019

Space Operations: Inspiring Humankind's Future

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Terrain-based Analysis as a Design and Planning Tool for Operations of a Lunar Exploration Rover for the TeamIndus Lunar Mission

Cited by 4 publications

References 4 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

Geotechnical and Shear Behavior of Novel Lunar Regolith Simulants TUBS-M, TUBS-T, and TUBS-I

Use of Terrain-Based Analysis in Mission Design, Planning and Modeling of Operations of a Lunar Exploration Rover

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