Preliminary Results of Hydrogen Prospecting with a Planetary Rover - Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University

Preliminary Results of Hydrogen Prospecting with a Planetary Rover

Rick Elphic, Hans Utz, Maria G. Bualat, Matthew Deans, Terrence W. Fong, Linda Kobayashi, Susan Lee, and Vinh To
Conference Paper, Proceedings of 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC '08), March, 2008

Abstract

High resolution hydrogen deposit mapping is central for a detailed understanding of lunar water ice deposits in permanently shadowed lunar craters. This becomes especially relevant in the context of potential in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Although orbital remote sensing can provide much information, prospecting for subsurface resources can only be performed directly on the surface. To explore how such prospecting might be performed robotically, we integrated the Hydra neutron spectrometer on the NASA Ames K10 rover and conducted an initial set of field tests. This paper describes the results of these tests.

BibTeX

@conference{Elphic-2008-9904,
author = {Rick Elphic and Hans Utz and Maria G. Bualat and Matthew Deans and Terrence W. Fong and Linda Kobayashi and Susan Lee and Vinh To},
title = {Preliminary Results of Hydrogen Prospecting with a Planetary Rover},
booktitle = {Proceedings of 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC '08)},
year = {2008},
month = {March},
keywords = {resource prospecting, space robotics},
}