Gravity Effects on Lunar Mobility and the Human-Robotic Systems Program

Abstract

As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) lays the technological foundation to return to the Moon for long duration missions, a lunar-unique combination of environmental challenges must be considered, including gravity reduced from Earthnormal. Within the context of robotics research at NASA, the programmatic effort underway at NASA Glenn Research Center to address lunar surface mobility is described, and in particular how reduced gravitational effects are being considered, with promising future work identified as well.