Lunar Prospecting Robot to Be Field-tested on Hawaii's Mauna Kea
The cool, rocky slopes of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano that
is Hawaii's highest mountain, will serve as a stand-in for the moon as
researchers from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, NASA and
other organizations test a robot designed for lunar prospecting.
During the field experiment, Nov. 1-13, the robot called Scarab will simulate a lunar mission to extract water, hydrogen, oxygen and other compounds that potentially could be mined for use by future lunar explorers. The four-wheeled robot will trek to different sites, using a Canadian-built drill to obtain a 1-meter geologic core at each site. Each core will be chemically analyzed by on-board instruments developed by NASA.
"People will not return to the moon for prolonged stays unless we can find resources there to help sustain them," says University Professor William "Red" Whittaker, director of the Robotics Institute's Field Robotics Center. "The technology being developed for Scarab will help locate whatever water or resources might exist on the moon as we seek out the raw materials for a new age of exploration."
Scarab was designed and built for NASA's Human Robot Systems program by Carnegie Mellon. It serves as a terrestrial testbed for technologies that would be used to explore craters at the moon's southern pole, where a robot would operate in perpetual darkness at temperatures of minus-385 degrees F. The rover features a novel rocker-arm suspension that enables it to negotiate sandy, rock-strewn inclines, and to lower its 5 ½-foot by 3-foot body to the ground for drilling operations. Scarab weighs about 880 pounds, and can operate on just 100 watts of power.
"Last year, we demonstrated Scarab's unique maneuverability and its ability to navigate autonomously," says David Wettergreen, associate research professor of robotics and project leader. "This year, we reconfigured Scarab to accommodate a rock sample analysis payload developed by NASA. Now it is a complete robotic system for exploring the lunar poles and prospecting for resources."
Scarab is outfitted with a drill assembly built by the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology Inc. (Norcat) in Sudbury, Ontario. The drill takes hours to cut a 1-meter core into a dense layer of weathered rock and soil, known as regolith. The core then is transferred into another Norcat device that pulverizes it, about one foot at a time.
Hawaii, famed for its tropical beaches, may not seem to have much in common with the moon. But the nearly 14,000-foot summit of Mauna Kea, home to a dozen major telescopes, often is snow-capped during winter months. The field test will occur at elevations of approximately 9,000 feet, where Scarab likely is to encounter rain and fog and daytime temperatures of about 40 degrees.
During the field experiment, Nov. 1-13, the robot called Scarab will simulate a lunar mission to extract water, hydrogen, oxygen and other compounds that potentially could be mined for use by future lunar explorers. The four-wheeled robot will trek to different sites, using a Canadian-built drill to obtain a 1-meter geologic core at each site. Each core will be chemically analyzed by on-board instruments developed by NASA.
"People will not return to the moon for prolonged stays unless we can find resources there to help sustain them," says University Professor William "Red" Whittaker, director of the Robotics Institute's Field Robotics Center. "The technology being developed for Scarab will help locate whatever water or resources might exist on the moon as we seek out the raw materials for a new age of exploration."
Scarab was designed and built for NASA's Human Robot Systems program by Carnegie Mellon. It serves as a terrestrial testbed for technologies that would be used to explore craters at the moon's southern pole, where a robot would operate in perpetual darkness at temperatures of minus-385 degrees F. The rover features a novel rocker-arm suspension that enables it to negotiate sandy, rock-strewn inclines, and to lower its 5 ½-foot by 3-foot body to the ground for drilling operations. Scarab weighs about 880 pounds, and can operate on just 100 watts of power.
"Last year, we demonstrated Scarab's unique maneuverability and its ability to navigate autonomously," says David Wettergreen, associate research professor of robotics and project leader. "This year, we reconfigured Scarab to accommodate a rock sample analysis payload developed by NASA. Now it is a complete robotic system for exploring the lunar poles and prospecting for resources."
Scarab is outfitted with a drill assembly built by the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology Inc. (Norcat) in Sudbury, Ontario. The drill takes hours to cut a 1-meter core into a dense layer of weathered rock and soil, known as regolith. The core then is transferred into another Norcat device that pulverizes it, about one foot at a time.
Hawaii, famed for its tropical beaches, may not seem to have much in common with the moon. But the nearly 14,000-foot summit of Mauna Kea, home to a dozen major telescopes, often is snow-capped during winter months. The field test will occur at elevations of approximately 9,000 feet, where Scarab likely is to encounter rain and fog and daytime temperatures of about 40 degrees.
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