Developing and Testing Technologies for Planetary Surface Exploration and Habitation

Abstract

Despite recent uncertainties about NASAs next destination in space, there is still a strong interest in enabling extended human exploration of the Moon and Mars. While we do have the experience of Apollo, more than a half-century of technology advances will separate Apollo from the earliest possible resumption of lunar exploration. In addition, future human exploration missions will entail much longer surface stays than Apollo, requiring more attention to habitation issues. For these reasons, there is a real need to investigate the potential roles of advanced technologies in both surface exploration and planetary habitation. This paper reports on recent developments in these areas at the University of Maryland (UMd) Space Systems Laboratory (SSL). Supported by a number of sponsors via small grants, including signi cant leveraging of student academic competitions, the SSL has been able to create and support an integrated vision of future extended exploration concepts for planetary surface operations, including collaborative exploration between space-suited humans and various robotic vehicles, concepts for robotic crew support, and instantiations of habitat designs for extended duration missions. In collaboration with the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, the University of Maryland has developed RAVEN, an astronaut assistance rover for planetary surface exploration. RAVEN is semi-autonomous, capable of following the crew through complex terrain and responding to discrete, voice, and gestural commands. RAVEN is equipped with a dexterous manipulator to allow robotic sampling, either humandirected in a collaborative exploration scenario or under remote commanding for pure robotic operations. In conjunction with SSL-developed space suit simulators, this system has been tested in eld trials at geologically interesting locations in Arizona. This program, currently supported by the NASA Science Mission Directorate, will involve further eld tests on an annual basis. The SSL is also currently developing RHEA, a small scouting robot for eld testing. RHEA is a small (50-kg) rover carrying video cameras and a simple sampling arm, and is designed to operate under supervisory control via a low-bandwidth command link to a remote operator. An extended exploration mission could deploy a number of RHEA-class robots to survey potential exploration areas to allow prioritization of sortie targets, either based solely on visual surveys, or in response to more detailed analysis of samples collected and returned to the base site for manual analysis. RHEA will also be incorporated into the on-going series of Arizona eld trials to investigate the use of multiple heterogeneous robotic systems to better categorize and survey science sites, and to provide maximum coverage of human exploration activities. In 2009, the SSL developed a detailed design for a minimum functional lunar habitat for the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. This activity culminated in the