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Case Study: Lunar Mobility • Overview of Past Lunar Rover Missions • Design Review of NASA Robotic Prospector (RP) Rover for Lunar Exploration

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Case Study: Lunar Mobility • Overview of Past Lunar Rover Missions • Design Review of NASA Robotic Prospector (RP) Rover for Lunar Exploration Case Study: Lunar Mobility • Overview of past lunar rover missions • Design review of NASA Robotic Prospector (RP) rover for lunar exploration © 2020 David L. Akin - All rights reserved http://spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu U N I V E R S I T Y O F Slopes and Static Stability ENAE 788X - Planetary Surface Robotics MARYLAND 1 Lunar Motorcycle in KC-135 Testing U N I V E R S I T Y O F Slopes and Static Stability ENAE 788X - Planetary Surface Robotics MARYLAND 8 Lunar Motorcycle in Suspension Testing U N I V E R S I T Y O F Slopes and Static Stability ENAE 788X - Planetary Surface Robotics MARYLAND 9 National Aeronautics and Space Administration RP Rover Tiger Team Mission Overview The Lunar Resource Prospector (RP) rover was an earlier version of what became Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), which will be launched to the Moon in 2023. The technical details are not necessarily representative of the final VIPER design. Level-1 Mission Requirements 1.1 RP SHALL LAND AT A LUNAR POLAR REGION TO ENABLE PROSPECTING FOR VOLATILES • Full Success Criteria: Land at a polar location that maximizes the combined potential for obtaining a high volatile (hydrogen) concentration signature and mission duration within traverse capabilities • Minimum Success Criteria: Land at a polar location that maximizes the potential for obtaining a high volatile (hydrogen) concentration signature 1.2 RP SHALL BE CAPABLE OF OBTAINING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE LUNAR SURFACE AND SUBSURFACE VOLATILES AND MATERIALS • Full Success Criteria: Take both sub-surface measurements of volatile constituents via excavation and processing and surface measurements, at multiple locations • Minimum Success Criteria: Take either sub-surface measurements of volatile constituents via excavation and processing or surface measurements, at multiple locations 20 Simplified view of RP Get there… Launch Lunar Collect and Process the volatiles… Transfer Lunar Capture Use the Drill Subsystem to Orbit capture samples from up to regolith 1[m] depth Descent & Find & Excavate Volatiles… Landing Use the Neutron Spec & Heat samples (150-450 Quick Map Near-IR Spec to look for Heat surface degC) in the OVEN Checkout Hydrogen-rich materials regolith Subsystem Go to the areas with Roll-off Determine type and highest concentrations of Lander Enter quantity of volatiles in the volatiles, Permanently Identify permanent LAVA Subsystem, (H2, He, Shadowed Regions Volatiles shadows CO, CO2, CH4, H2O, N2, Quick (PSRs) Checkout NH3, H2S, SO2) Begin Use the Drill Subsystem to Show Expose expose material from 1[m] Image and quantify the Surface regolith depth to examine with me the water created using the Ops Near-IR Spec water! LAVA Subsystem 21 Resource Prospector (RP) Overview Mission: • Characterize the nature and distribution of water/volatiles in lunar polar sub-surface materials • Demonstrate ISRU processing of lunar regolith 2 kilometers 100-m radius landing ellipse RP Specs: Project Timeline: Mission Life: 6-14 earth days ✓ FY13: Pre-Phase A: MCR (Pre-Formulation) (extended missions being studied) ✓ FY14: Phase A (Formulation) Rover + Payload Mass: 300 kg FY15: Phase A (Demonstration: RP15) Total system wet mass (on LV): 5000 kg ✓ Rover Dimensions: 1.4m x 1.4m x 2m • FY16: Phase A (Risk Reduction) Rover Power (nom): 300W • FY17: Phase B: SRR/MDR Customer: HEOMD/AES • FY18: PDR (Implementation) Cost: ~$300M (excl LV) • FY19: CDR (Critical design) Mission Class: D-Cat3 • FY20: I&T Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9 v1.1 • FY21: RP launch 22 Distributed Operations Test NASA-ARC Mission Control room driving RP15 rover @ NASA-JSC NASA-JSC Rock Yard from the rover (left) stereo camera 3-D Image Viewing of NIRVSS Camera Images During DOT NASA-KSC Payload Control room 23 RP15 In the Dirt 2015-08-15 RP15 in the JSC Rock Yard “Driver’s Training” 24 Resource Prospector Org Chart HEOMD AES Division (Partner) NASA JPL J. Crusan (AES) PAO C. Moore (AES) Chief Exploration NASA (all) NASA JSC E. Mahoney (AES) Scientist W. Watkins (AES) V. Friedensen (AES) B. Bussey (AES) NASA ARC NASA KSC NASA GRC NASA MSFC Risk Management Schedule D. Faied (ARC) D. Faied (ARC) NASA HQ (Unallocated) WBS 01 Procurement Resource Mgmt Project Management F. Lou (ARC) R. Khattab (ARC) D. Andrews (ARC) Project Controls PAO D. Faied (ARC) K. Williams(ARC) Rover TTR WBS 02 WBS 03 WBS 04 Systems Engineering SMA Science/Tech R. Vaughan (ARC) D. Flansburg (ARC) T. Colaprete (ARC) Requirements (L1/L2) Science Planning Liaisons Data Analysis/Archiving Trade Studies WBS 05 WBS 6.01 WBS 07 WBS 08 WBS 06.02 WBS 10 WBS 11 Payload Rover Mission Operations Launch Vehicle Spacecraft / Lander Integration & Test Education & Public J. Quinn (KSC) W. Bluethmann(JSC) J. Trimble (ARC) Outreach WBS 09 J. Hall (KSC) S. Miller (KSC) L. Moore (JSC) T. Fong (ARC) TBD Ground Systems J. Trimble (ARC) 25 1919 Rover Dimensional Comparison (approx.) Spirit/Opportunity (2004): Curiosity (1996): RP/RP15 (2015): • 1.6m x 2.3m x 1.5m • 3.0m x 2.8m x 2.1m (LxWxH) (LxWxH) • 1.5m x 1.5m x 2.0m Sojourner (1996): • Weighs about 180kg • Weighs about 900kg (LxWxH) • 0.6m x 0.5m x 0.3m • Weighs about 300kg (LxWxH) • Weighs about 11kg 26 RP Rover team makeup and background 27 Resource Prospector Rover Overview • Design tensions between the lunar poles complexities with Class D sensibilities – Lunar complexities • Uncertain terrain; soft soils, size and frequency of rocks • Stark lighting conditions • Short duration • Operations in permanently shadowed regions; very cold regions • Severe radiation • Sun and earth very low to the horizon – Class D sensibilities • Robustness under constrained resources (mass, power, Source: Carrier, et al, Lunar Sourcebook, Chapter 9 schedule, budget, …) • Single string, with limited redundancy • Risk tolerant, but risk informed • Use heritage designs when possible 28 Resource Prospector Rover Overview • Rover is science payload delivery device • Short duration mission; could be as short as a 6 day mission – 1 km distance target leading to high paced operations – Not designing to survive the night • Design reference mission is currently JAXA designed lander – Options for NASA designed pallet lander being considered – While lander does effect rover, it’s not a significant driver • Rover is operated through direct-to-earth communications using waypoint commanding – Expect waypoints to be on the order of 4-6 meters • Rover is minimally autonomous; – Short time delay calls for a different operating approach than Mars 29 RP vs. ISS vs. Mars Rovers PROSPECTORRESOURCE Real-time science Non-interactive Interactive Natural terrain (MER, MSL) MARS ROVERSHigh latency Med latency (>8 min round-trip) (10-30s round-trip) Good orbital “Poor” orbital maps maps Command Short sequence mission Continuous comms Intermittent comms Extreme lighting Low-tempo ops High-tempo ops Low latency Long mission (<2s round-trip) Med latency RP, ISS SPDM Direct teleop SSRMS Structured environment ISS EVA ROBOTICS 30 Prior Lunar Rover Missions Image from Abdrakhimov, Basilevsky, Ivanov, Head, Scott, and Xiao (2015) 31 Lunakhod 2 Image from Abdrakhimov, Basilevsky, Ivanov, Head, Scott, and Xiao (2015) 32 RP vs. Lunakhod RP (as planned) Lunokhod 2 Lunar location High latitude (polar) Equatorial Terrain type Highlands Mare (+ some highlands) Mission duration (surface) 6 days 139 days Total drive distance 3 km 39 km Illumination Oblique Overhead Downlink latency 10-30 sec (via DSN) 3 sec (analog) Footprint (width x length) 1.5 x 1.5 m 1.6 x 1.7 m Mass 300 kg 836 kg Wheels (# x diameter) 4 x 30 (TBD) cm 8 x 51 cm Steering Explicit (independent 4 wheels) Skid-steered Solar + battery Power Solar + battery (+ Polonium-210 heater) Drive speed (max) 10 cm/s (prospecting mode) 28 cm/s (low), 55 cm/s (high) Prospecting, drilling, ISRU Surface imaging, solar x-rays, Surface activities processing magnetic fields, penetrometer 33 RP Engineering Prototype Vision & Comm Subsurface Sample Collection Camera/Antenna Mast Drill Volatile Content/Oxygen Extraction Oxygen & Volatile Extraction Node (OVEN) Operation Control Avionics Heat Rejection Radiator Volatile Content Evaluation (Simulated) Lunar Advanced Volatile Analysis Resource Localization (LAVA) Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS) Power Solar Array (Simulated) Battery Sample Evaluation Near Infrared Volatiles Spectrometer System (NIRVSS) Mobility Suspension, steering, propulsion 34 Rover Baseline Design • Mobility • Navigation – 4 wheel explicit steering and propulsion – Stereo camera pair on the mast – Independent active suspension – Wide angle hazard camera on each side – Ability to crab; getting out of trouble, sun of the rover for virtual bumper tracking – Fish-eye-lens under the rover to view • Structure rover wheels – Integrated rover and payload systems • Thermal – Combined billet/sheet metal approach – Five temperature controlled zones • Power – Cooled by radiator – Lithium Ion battery (5.5 kw-hr) • Software – Charged by solar array (350 W) – GSFC Core Flight Executive/Core Flight Software using Simulink model based – Active trade about battery voltage development • Communications – Ground software providing localization – Direct-to-earth 600 kbps directional X- • Avionics band (400 kbps for roving) – 2 kbps omni-directional – RAD750; options being explored – Robonaut heritage motor control 35 FY15: The year of build • During FY15, the RP team built and 12/13 05/14 performed initial testing of a functional prototype system – Approach following flight flow, with project owned gate reviews – Flexibility granted given schedule 10/14 12/14 and budgetary constraints – Integrated functional payload components – Capable of 1G operations • Heavier than flight design – Look and feel of flight rover 08/15 • Wheels are small for 1G operations 01/15 • Rover was virtually a blank sheet mid- October 2014 36 FY16: Gravity Offload lessons learned • RP15 wheels were able to drive up • Drilling was stable at worst test case: 15º slopes, but with >50% slip. 20º slope, wheels straight, mobility off, • 12 1” grousers worked best at 25º percussive drilling slopes, similar to RP15 at 15º. • Lower efficiency harmonic gears • Reducing speed (.03cm/s) on 20º reduce static loads on steering and slopes reduced slip (~45%<), but suspension during normal driving.
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