Dust-tolerant mechanism design for lunar & NEO surface systems

Abstract

NASA has grand goals including exploring extraterrestrial bodies such as near-earth objects (NEOs) in order to better understand our origins as well as protect Earth from space-based threats. Robotic precursor missions and eventually manned exploration will require advanced dust-tolerant mechanisms if long-life and low-risk missions are to be attained. Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms Corporation (Honeybee) has spent the past five years developing scalable, dust-tolerant, utility connectors and related mechanisms with a focus on lunar surface system applications. Solutions in which both load capacity, misalignment tolerances and other aspects can be scaled without an exponential departure from requirements such as mass, volume, and dust-tolerance, enables a modular and scalable system utilizing a standardized interface. At the center of the technology is Honeybee's permeable membrane electrical connector (patent pending). A prototype was successfully tested to 100's of cycles with JSC-1AF lunar simulant at 1 torr and -160°C. Testing has shown that 1000's of cycles is attainable.