Wedler, Armin and Schuster, Martin J. and Müller, Marcus G. and Vodermayer, Bernhard and Meyer, Lukas and Giubilato, Riccardo and Vayugundla, Mallikarjuna and Smisek, Michal and Dömel, Andreas and Steidle, Florian and Lehner, Peter and Schröder, Susanne and Staudinger, Emanuel and Foing, Bernard and Reill, Josef (2020) German Aerospace Center’s advanced robotic technologyfor future lunar scientific missions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 379 (2188). Royal Society Publishing. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2019.0574. ISBN Print ISSN:1364-503X, Online ISSN:1471-2962. ISSN 1364-503X.
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Official URL: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2019.0574
Abstract
he Earth's moon is currently an object of interest of many space agencies for unmanned robotic missions within this decade. Besides future prospects for building lunar gateways as support to human space flight, the Moon is an attractive location for scientific purposes. Not only will its study give insight on the foundations of the Solar System but also its location, uncontaminated by the Earth's ionosphere, represents a vantage point for the observation of the Sun and planetary bodies outside the Solar System. Lunar exploration has been traditionally conducted by means of single-agent robotic assets, which is a limiting factor for the return of scientific missions. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is developing fundamental technologies towards increased autonomy of robotic explorers to fulfil more complex mission tasks through cooperation. This paper presents an overview of past, present and future activities of DLR towards highly autonomous systems for scientific missions targeting the Moon and other planetary bodies. The heritage from the Mobile Asteroid Scout (MASCOT), developed jointly by DLR and CNES and deployed on asteroid Ryugu on 3 October 2018 from JAXA's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, inspired the development of novel core technologies towards higher efficiency in planetary exploration. Together with the lessons learnt from the ROBEX project (2012–2017), where a mobile robot autonomously deployed seismic sensors at a Moon analogue site, this experience is shaping the future steps towards more complex space missions. They include the development of a mobile rover for JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) in 2024 as well as demonstrations of novel multi-robot technologies at a Moon analogue site on the volcano Mt Etna in the ARCHES project. Within ARCHES, a demonstration mission is planned from the 14 June to 10 July 2021,1 during which heterogeneous teams of robots will autonomously conduct geological and mineralogical analysis experiments and deploy an array of low-frequency antennas to measure Jovian and solar bursts. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades'.
Item URL in elib: | https://elib.dlr.de/139189/ |
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Document Type: | Article |
Title: | German Aerospace Center’s advanced robotic technologyfor future lunar scientific missions |
Authors: | |
Date: | 23 November 2020 |
Journal or Publication Title: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A |
Refereed publication: | Yes |
Open Access: | Yes |
Gold Open Access: | No |
In SCOPUS: | Yes |
In ISI Web of Science: | Yes |
Volume: | 379 |
DOI : | 10.1098/rsta.2019.0574 |
Publisher: | Royal Society Publishing |
Series Name: | Discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades’ organised and edited by Ian Crawford, Martin Elvis, Joseph Silk and John Zarnecki |
ISSN: | 1364-503X |
ISBN: | Print ISSN:1364-503X, Online ISSN:1471-2962 |
Status: | Published |
Keywords: | robotics, planetary exploration, ARCHESdemonstration mission, Martian MoonseXploration (MMX), Mobile Asteroid Scout(MASCOT) |
HGF - Research field: | Aeronautics, Space and Transport |
HGF - Program: | Space |
HGF - Program Themes: | Space System Technology |
DLR - Research area: | Raumfahrt |
DLR - Program: | R SY - Space System Technology |
DLR - Research theme (Project): | R - Project MOREX [SY], R - Robotic Science Explorer, R - Projekt Mascot (Rob.) |
Location: | Berlin-Adlershof , Oberpfaffenhofen |
Institutes and Institutions: | Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics (since 2013) > Perception and Cognition Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics (since 2013) > Mechatronic Systems Institute of Communication and Navigation > Communications Systems Institute of Optical Sensor Systems > Real-Time Data Processing |
Deposited By: | Wedler, Armin |
Deposited On: | 04 Dec 2020 16:19 |
Last Modified: | 15 Jul 2021 08:46 |
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