Conceptual Design of a Lunar Drone Operated using In-situ Propellant

Abstract

A design methodology for lunar drone that flies above the surface of the moon is presented. Such vehicles enable recurring robotic tasks on moon, including lunar mapping, polar resource assessment, and lava tube exploration. To enable sustainable operation, the thrusters onboard are designed to utilize in-situ H2O2 propellant. We conduct mission level performance analysis to evaluate the feasible concepts based on state-of-the-art rocket thrusters. Under a mild assumption for the conceptual drone configuration, the flying performance is derived. To realize the flying performance, we design an in-situ propulsion system and study its compatibility to the entire vehicle. We uncover and discuss the fundamental limit and different design trade-offs of the lunar drone concept. According to these analyses, we develop the baseline design of the lunar drone: it has a 230 seconds flying duration, a nominal 10 m/s flying speed, and a minimum cover range of 1 km. The theoretical bounds for flying performance is validated by a 6 degree-of-freedom lunar drone created in MATLAB/Simulink. In addition, we validate that the baseline design can satisfy the hypothetical mission requirements using an extended numerical model.