scholarly journals Vision-Based Behavior Planning for Lunar or Planetary Exploration Rover on Flat Surface

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 847-855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riho Ejiri ◽  
Takashi Kubota ◽  
Ichiro Nakatani ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Flat Surface ◽  
Route Planning ◽  
Image Data ◽  
Planetary Exploration ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Planetary Rover ◽  
Planning Scheme ◽  
Mission Period ◽  
Flat Ground ◽  
Navigation Method

Lunar or planetary exploration rovers are expected to have the ability to move across an area as wide as possible in an unknown environment during a limited mission period. Hence, they need an efficient navigation method. Most of the surface of the moon or planets consists of flat ground, sand, and scattered rocks. In a simple flat sandy terrain with some rocks, rough route planning is sufficient for a lunar or planetary rover to avoid obstacles and reach an assigned point. This paper proposes an efficient vision-based planning scheme for exploration rovers on a flat surface with scattered obstacles. In the proposed scheme, dangerous areas are robustly extracted by processing image data, and the degree of danger is defined. A rough routing plan and sensing plan are simultaneously constructed based on the dangerous-area extraction results. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is discussed based on the results of some simulations and simple experiments.

scholarly journals Semi-Autonomous Telescience System for Planetary Exploration Rover

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 432-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuo Yoshimitsu ◽  
◽  
Miharu Ootsuka ◽  
Takashi Kubota ◽  
Ichiro Nakatani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Robots ◽  
Planetary Exploration ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Planetary Rover ◽  
Surface Exploration ◽  
Machine Interface ◽  
Man Machine Interface

In recent years, many researchers have extensively studied and developed unmanned mobile robots for surface exploration of the moon or planets. A planetary rover is required to travel safely over a long distance for many days in unfamiliar terrain and to collect samples such as sands, stones, rocks, etc. This paper describes a telescience method by a rover-equipped manipulator for lunar or planetary rover missions. The investigated telescience strategy of capturing scientific samples is to control the on-board manipulator as automatically as possible. An experimental rover system has been developed to demonstrate the strategy, which derives the required autonomous functions in unknown natural environments and the desirable man-machine interface.

Human Planetary Exploration

2019 ◽  
pp. 225-240
Author(s):  
Sophie Gruber
Keyword(s):  
Planetary Exploration ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Hardware Development ◽  
The Future ◽  
Planetary Bodies ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Human Exploration

The human exploration of planetary bodies started with the Apollo missions to the Moon, which provided valuable lessons learned and experience for the future human exploration. Based on that, the design of hardware and operations need to further be developed to also overcome the new challenges, which arise when planning crewed missions to Mars and beyond. This chapter provides an overview about the environment and structure of the Red Planet and discusses the challenges on operations and hardware correlated to it. It further provides insights into the considerations regarding the hardware development which need to be investigated and defined before launching a crewed mission to Mars.

scholarly journals "SPACE WORM": BORE-HOLE ANCHORING MECHANISM FOR MICRO-G PLANETARY EXPLORATION DRILL

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Gagnon ◽  
Emile Abou-Khalil ◽  
Omar Azrak ◽  
Alexei Morozov ◽  
Howard Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Design ◽  
Planetary Exploration ◽  
Technical Solution ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Mechanical Advantage ◽  
Resource Identification ◽  
Drilling Unit ◽  
Near Earth Objects

Planetary drilling has become an essential need in the search for life or resource identification on the Moon and other near-Earth objects. This paper focuses on the mechanical design aspects of a bore-hole anchoring mechanism architecture that is relatively independent from its “mother” vehicle. The recommended solution comprises a two member actuated anchoring mechanism. Each actuator is driven by one leading screw thus providing a considerable mechanical advantage to the anchor shoes. The anchor’s ability to “walk” up and down the hole is similar to that of an earthworm, hence the naming “Space Worm”. The present paper is not an extensive technical solution to a planetary drilling unit, but rather proposes general concepts that could eventually constitute the backbone of such a sophisticated machine.

scholarly journals Trajectory Determination of Chang’E-5 during Landing and Ascending

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 4837
Author(s):  
Peng Yang ◽  
Yong Huang ◽  
Peijia Li ◽  
Siyu Liu ◽  
Quan Shan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Image Data ◽  
Landing Site ◽  
Polynomial Functions ◽  
The Moon ◽  
B Spline ◽  
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ◽  
Orbiter Image ◽  
Positioning Method ◽  
Trajectory Determination

Chang’E-5 (CE-5) is China’s first lunar sample return mission. This paper focuses on the trajectory determination of the CE-5 lander and ascender during the landing and ascending phases, and the positioning of the CE-5 lander on the Moon. Based on the kinematic statistical orbit determination method using B-spline and polynomial functions, the descent and ascent trajectories of the lander and ascender are determined by using ground-based radiometric ranging, Doppler and interferometry data. The results show that a B-spline function is suitable for a trajectory with complex maneuvers. For a smooth trajectory, B-spline and polynomial functions can reach almost the same solutions. The positioning of the CE-5 lander on the Moon is also investigated here. Using the kinematic statistical positioning method, the landing site of the lander is 43.0590°N, 51.9208°W with an elevation of −2480.26 m, which is less than 200 m different from the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) image data.

LROC candidate images with solar glints off Lunar Laser Retroreflectors: A dedicated tool of NASA's Moon Trek

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Costanza Rossi ◽  
Natalie Gallegos ◽  
Luciana Filomena ◽  
Shan Malhotra ◽  
Emily Law ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Coordinate System ◽  
Image Data ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Lunar Laser Ranging ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Morphological Pattern ◽  
Ground Station ◽  
Lunar Laser ◽  
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ◽  
Phase Angles

<p>The Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) investigations have provided time high-precision measurements of geodesy, dynamics and distance of the Earth-Moon system, and inferences about lunar interior and gravitational physics. LLR studies are supported by a total of five passive Laser Retro-Reflectors (LRR) placed on the Moon surface by the past missions Apollo-11, -14, -15 and Luna-17 and -21. The detection of their positions is decisive to improve the measurement accuracy and the data from alternative instrumentations contributed to their analysis. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) operated by using the Standardized Lunar Coordinate System as reference system has acquired images of the Moon surface that represent data applicable to LLR planning and research. Several LROC images present nominal lighting conditions and solar glints reflected off of an LRR. Glints represent specular reflections of light that define higher-precision measurement of LRR position. In this way, their detection plays an important role in LRR analysis. The identification of candidate images with solar glints through time allows researchers to record these measurements. NASA and INFN-LNF (National Lab of Frascati) have collaboratively developed an LLR tool to support glint identification. The tool can be accessed using the Moon Trek (https://trek.nasa.gov/moon) which is one of the web based interactive visualization and analysis portals provided by the NASA’s Solar System Trek (https://trek.nasa.gov) project. The tool facilitates current ranging studies as well as planning of future missions that involve ranging activities such as future retroreflector deployments. Glint identification has been performed by using the LLR tool that allows us to investigate the image data, and to compute geometric calculations and LLR analyses. The tool with SPICE computations is provided to search for nominal conditions to catch a solar glint off of a retroreflector, to search for time intervals in which a reflector can be seen from a ground station on Earth, and to search in PDS database for images with these conditions. Moon Trek’s LLR tool allows us to find time intervals when spacecraft positioning was able to catch a solar glint reflected off of a retroreflector by setting the maximum incidence and phase angles. This analysis is accompanied by the search for LROC images available in Planetary Data System (PDS) that have solar glint off the LRR. Using the Moon Trek, it is possible to identify LROC images with solar glint off the LRR and to recognize optimal LROC candidates. This research allows us to identify good examples of LROC images that present solar glints. More than six candidate images over a period of 10 years of LROC data were recognized. In this contribution, we present the recognized LROC candidates and we show their detection in the image data, by avoiding the bias of the surface high albedo and the morphological pattern that can interfere with the analysis. The identification of solar glints off LRR will allow us to find previous observation that might be incorrect and to measure the LRR position in the Standardized Lunar Coordinate System of LROC images. These measures will be then compared with the ephemeris calculations obtained from LLR data.</p>

Positioning of the CE-1’s impact site based on CCD image data photographed during the controlled impact on the Moon

2011 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
JianJun Liu ◽  
Xin Ren ◽  
XiaoDuan Zou ◽  
WenRui Wang ◽  
LingLi Mou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Image Data ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Impact Site ◽  
Ccd Image

Processes on the Lunar Surface

1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 433-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Gold
Keyword(s):  
Lunar Surface ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Specific Interpretation ◽  
Good Starting Point ◽  
Flat Ground ◽  
Generally True

The coloration of the Moon in light and dark areas requires a remarkably specific interpretation and is therefore a good starting point for the discussion of processes on the lunar surface. It is generally true that the high ground is light and the low flat ground is dark. Generally the ray material ejected from craters both in the high and the low ground is light (there are a few exceptions). The light ray material is present only in association with craters judged youngest on all other evidence, and it must therefore be supposed that such ray material does not show on the surface for long, compared with the age of most features.

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