CubeRovers for Lunar Exploration
Abstract
CubeRover exploration offers a new paradigm for robotic planetary missions in which small landers and small rovers operate as precursors to larger primary missions to explore a planetary body. Small rovers can potentially explore greater area more efficiently than large rovers, because several can operate in parallel, and they can be deployed widely from multiple landers. These rovers can act as scouts, identifying safe paths into regions that would otherwise be considered too risky. This enables follow-on missions to accomplish goals that would not otherwise have been attempted. Finally, CubeRover exploration offers the prospect for standardization, democratization, and broad applicability analogous to the transformation that CubeSats brought to the domain and economics of Low Earth Orbit. For the specific context of this project, CubeRover is specialized to address a few of NASA's Strategic Knowledge Gaps (SKGs), in particular, In-situ Lunar Surface Trafficability (topic III-C-2) and Descent Engine Blast Ejecta Phenomena (topic III-D-4).
BibTeX
@conference{Tallaksen-2017-122506,author = {A. P. Tallaksen and A. D. Horchler and C. Boirum and D. Arnett and H. L. Jones and E. Fang and E. Amoroso and L. Chomas and L. Papincak and O. B. Sapunkov and W. L. Whittaker},
title = {CubeRovers for Lunar Exploration},
booktitle = {Proceedings of Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG '17)},
year = {2017},
month = {October},
}