Search Results (3)

Since 1969, 55 years ago, Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) has provided accurate and precise (down to ~1 cm RMS) measurements of the Moon’s orbit thanks to the Apollo and Lunokhod Cube Corner Retroreflector (CCR) Laser Retroreflector Arrays (LRAs) deployed on the Moon. Nowadays, the current level of precision of these measurements is largely limited by the lunar librations affecting the old generation of LRAs. To improve this situation, next-generation libration-free retroreflectors are necessary. To this end, the Satellite/lunar/GNSS laser ranging/altimetry and cube/microsat Characterization Facilities Laboratory (SCF_Lab) at the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare—Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (INFN-LNF), in collaboration with the University of Maryland (UMD) and supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), developed MoonLIGHT (Moon Laser Instrumentation for General relativity High-accuracy Tests), a single large CCR with a front face diameter of 100 mm, nominally unaffected by librations, and with optical performances comparable to the Apollo/Lunokhod LRAs of CCRs. Such a big CCR (hereafter, ML100) is mounted into a specifically devised, designed, and manufactured robotic actuator, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), the so-called MoonLIGHT Pointing Actuator (MPAc), which, once its host craft has landed on the Moon, will finely align the front face of the ML100 towards the Earth. The (optical) performances of such a piece of hardware, MoonLIGHT+MPAc, were tested in/by the SCF_Lab in order to ensure that it was space flight ready before its integration onto the deck of the host craft. After its successful deployment on the Moon, additional and better-quality LLR data (down to ~ 1 mm RMS or better for the contribution of the laser retroreflector instrument, MoonLIGHT, to the total LLR error budget) will be available to the community for future and enhanced tests of gravitational theories. Full article

Over the past 50 years, the space race has potentially grown due to the development of sophisticated mechatronic systems. One of the most important is the bio-inspired mobile-planetary robots, actually for which there is no reported one that currently works physically on the Moon. Nonetheless, significant progress has been made to design biomimetic systems based on animal morphology adapted to sand (granular material) to test them in analog planetary environments, such as regolith simulants. Biomimetics and bio-inspired attributes contribute significantly to advancements across various industries by incorporating features from biological organisms, including autonomy, intelligence, adaptability, energy efficiency, self-repair, robustness, lightweight construction, and digging capabilities-all crucial for space systems. This study includes a scoping review, as of July 2024, focused on the design of animal-inspired robotic hardware for planetary exploration, supported by a bibliometric analysis of 482 papers indexed in Scopus. It also involves the classification and comparison of limbed and limbless animal-inspired robotic systems adapted for movement in soil and sand (locomotion methods such as grabbing-pushing, wriggling, undulating, and rolling) where the most published robots are inspired by worms, moles, snakes, lizards, crabs, and spiders. As a result of this research, this work presents a pioneering methodology for designing bio-inspired robots, justifying the application of biological morphologies for subsurface or surface lunar exploration. By highlighting the technical features of actuators, sensors, and mechanisms, this approach demonstrates the potential for advancing space robotics, by designing biomechatronic systems that mimic animal characteristics. Full article

The lunar lava tubes are envisioned as possible hosting structures for a human base in the Moon’s equatorial regions, providing shelter from radiations, micrometeoroids, and temperature excursion. A first robotic mission is set to scout the habitability of these underground architectures in the near future. The communication inside these underground tunnels is heavily constrained; hence, the scouting system should rely on a high degree of autonomy. At the same time, the exploration system may encounter different types of terrain, requiring an adaptable mobility subsystem able to travel fast on basaltic terrain while avoiding considerable obstacles. This paper presents a cave explorer’s mission study and preliminary sizing targeting the lunar lava tubes. The study proposes using a hybrid mobility system with wheels and thrusters to navigate smoothly inside the lava tubes. The peculiar mobility system of the cave explorer requires an accurate study of the adaptability of its control capabilities with the change of mass for a given set of sensors and actuators. The combination of conceptual design techniques and control assessment gives the engineer a clear indication of the feasible design box for the studied system during the initial formulation phases of a mission. This first part of the study focuses on framing the stakeholders’ needs and identifying the required capabilities of the cave explorer. Furthermore, the study focuses on assessing a design box in terms of mass and power consumption for the cave explorer. Following different mission-level assessments, a more detailed design of the cave explorer is discussed, providing an initial design in terms of mass and power consumption. Finally, the objective shifts toward studying the performances of the guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) algorithms varying the mass of the cave explorer. The GNC significantly impacts the design box of the surface planetary system. Hence, investigating its limitations can indicate the feasibility of mass growth to accommodate, for example, more payload. Full article