The Intuitive lander will also deploy three shoebox-sized CADRE rovers by NASA. The rovers will autonomously navigate the landed region to demonstrate collectively better mapping it than a single rover would. The rovers will have multistatic ground penetrating radars to create 3D images of the subsurface structure up to 10 meters deep.
Arguably, this kind of robot "swarm" is the way forward on both the Moon and Mars. A standard item recovers sunk costs and provides redundancy, allowing rapid high-risk exploration by expendable units.
A low-cost unit can be carried on high-risk landers, even in cases where the chances of success of the flight are no better than 50%. This is true of Moon and Mars landers designed to carry multiple tonnes, but with initially moderate chances of success. If a rover can be built to a common Moon-Mars standard, then the first ones on the Moon can act as prototypes to be improved for both the Moon and Mars.
A solar powered rover in the 4kg mass range (so the shoe-box size), should later be capable of direct surface to satellite communication, later giving them limitless range. In addition to imaging and deep radar, another instrument of interest would be a laser spectrometer aka Chemcam.
Edit: What's wrong with everybody? Here I am on the NASA subreddit, getting downvoted for being supportive of JPL's CADRE rover. So far, this is the only comment on the thread. Its relevant and shows I read Jatan's article. C'mon guys, try reading the article yourselves and making some better comment.
Edit 2: The stats have since changed for the better! By the same token, I try to show support for other peoples' comments too.
It's been really interesting to see this sudden ramp up by multiple nations to get more of a presence on the moon. I feel like this is all building to a permanent/semipermanent human presence there and no country wants to be left behind. Competition really does move us all forward.
It's been really interesting to see this sudden ramp up by multiple nations to get more of a presence on the moon.
and within the US effort with CLPS, there's a lot of good competition. IMO, the most valuable work is when using scalable tech such the upcoming Blue Moon that can transition from cargo to crew. The early uncrewed landers and rovers mitigate risks for the crewed ones.
I feel like this is all building to a permanent/semi-permanent human presence there and no country wants to be left behind.
Agreeing, but now is the time to set international standards on the same principle as the International Docking Adapter, but applied to suits, rover seats, CO2 scrubbers, air mixes " pressures, electrical connections, radio frequencies & protocols… that are necessary to become good neighbors in a lunar village setting.
Competition really does move us all forward.
The new buzzword is coopetition and it really applies in this case!
from article:
Arguably, this kind of robot "swarm" is the way forward on both the Moon and Mars. A standard item recovers sunk costs and provides redundancy, allowing rapid high-risk exploration by expendable units.
A low-cost unit can be carried on high-risk landers, even in cases where the chances of success of the flight are no better than 50%. This is true of Moon and Mars landers designed to carry multiple tonnes, but with initially moderate chances of success. If a rover can be built to a common Moon-Mars standard, then the first ones on the Moon can act as prototypes to be improved for both the Moon and Mars.
A solar powered rover in the 4kg mass range (so the shoe-box size), should later be capable of direct surface to satellite communication, later giving them limitless range. In addition to imaging and deep radar, another instrument of interest would be a laser spectrometer aka Chemcam.
Edit: What's wrong with everybody? Here I am on the NASA subreddit, getting downvoted for being supportive of JPL's CADRE rover. So far, this is the only comment on the thread. Its relevant and shows I read Jatan's article. C'mon guys, try reading the article yourselves and making some better comment.
Edit 2: The stats have since changed for the better! By the same token, I try to show support for other peoples' comments too.
It's been really interesting to see this sudden ramp up by multiple nations to get more of a presence on the moon. I feel like this is all building to a permanent/semipermanent human presence there and no country wants to be left behind. Competition really does move us all forward.
and within the US effort with CLPS, there's a lot of good competition. IMO, the most valuable work is when using scalable tech such the upcoming Blue Moon that can transition from cargo to crew. The early uncrewed landers and rovers mitigate risks for the crewed ones.
Agreeing, but now is the time to set international standards on the same principle as the International Docking Adapter, but applied to suits, rover seats, CO2 scrubbers, air mixes " pressures, electrical connections, radio frequencies & protocols… that are necessary to become good neighbors in a lunar village setting.
The new buzzword is coopetition and it really applies in this case!