Prospects for robotic lunar exploration by commercial enterprise

Abstract

The agenda for robotic activity on the Moon spans prospecting, resource extraction, site preparation for human missions and science goals from far-side radio astronomy to understanding the bombardment history of the early solar system. Many of these missions will be repetitive such as multiple prospectors to survey large areas, scrapers and dozers for resource extraction and site preparation and mobile rovers providing basic utilities like power, thermal control and communication for science payloads. Many of the same systems are common to each class of rover including power systems, drive-trains, communication systems, camera and antenna pointing mechanisms, navigation sensors and software. These factors argue for having the bulk of lunar robotic activity based in the cost effective private sector with governments as customers, rather than being carried out directly by government agencies.