The Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS)

<p>The Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS) is an instrument concept funded by NASA’s Development of Advanced Lunar Instrumentation (DALI) Program, and undergoing maturation at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. LEMS has been proposed to the NASA's recent call for Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM).</p><p>LEMS is a compact, autonomous, self-sustaining and long-lasting instrument suite that enables in situ, continuous, long-term monitoring of the lunar exosphere and of the most relevant natural and manmade controlling processes (infall of interplanetary dust particles (IDP), influx of solar wind and magnetospheric particles, EUV irradiation, interior outgassing, disturbances by landers and human surface activities). LEMS can be delivered to the surface of the Moon by crewed or robotic missions. Once deployed (on a deck or directly on the surface), LEMS will operate day and night for a nominal duration of 2 years without requiring any additional support or resources from the carrying asset.</p><p>LEMS integrates a Mass Spectrometer, a Laser Retro-reflector Array, a Lunar Micrometeoroid Monitor, a Lunar Energetic Ion Analyzer, and a 3-axis Seismometer. These sensors will collect concurrent observations that will lead to a comprehensive, time-resolved, and geographically-localized characterization of the composition and dynamics of volatiles gases in the lunar exosphere as a response to variations in solar forcing, IDP flux, seismicity, and known manmade events. Furthermore, owing to its expected longevity, LEMS will also improve upon the success of the Apollo Passive Seismic Experiment (PSE) by providing a new generation of seismological measurements that will address unanswered questions by the PSEs. These questions include the size and state of the lunar core, homogeneity of the mantle, variation in crustal thickness, the mechanism for deep moonquakes, and the relationship between shallow seismicity and the current tectonic state of the lunar crust.</p><p>With its complementary and integrated multi-sensors and its autonomous concept of operation, LEMS is a science-enabling investigation that combines capabilities, in a single duplicable instrument package. The duplicative nature of the LEMS design enables a network of stations that focuses on exospheric and geophysical measurements at the Moon to become viable options. Finally, the self-sustaining architecture of LEMS provides a model design of future payloads that can take advantage of more commercial or scientific flight opportunities to the Moon while requiring no further support for operation from their carrying assets.</p>

Scientific Co-operative Rover with Artificial Intelligence for Futuristic Scientific Experiments on Moon

<p>With recent scientific experiments carried out and results have shown an immense studies in<br />operation in the complex lunar environment and exploiting the moon base as a scientific platform<br />for both research and major challenges in exploration. Notion Robotics Lab proposes a highly<br />advanced lunar lander to prepare future missions on moon. The scientific areas for investigation<br />on the lunar lander include the radiation environmental and its effect, dust, plasma, the most<br />important being the properties of moon dust and its effect on human intervention. Notion<br />Robotics Lab will propose a payload which interfaces the information and the boundary<br />conditions. This paper discusses the scientific objectives for the futuristic mission which<br />emphasizes human robot exploration and builds a prototype scientific payload to be part of the<br />mission and also design of scientific instruments.<br />Notion Robotics Lab has developed the sophisticated autonomous co-operative rovers with<br />multiple intelligence systems to study life on lunar base and capable of handling multiple<br />decisions without human interference. This rover will be built as per the map of the terrains in<br />the lunar base thus operating different tasks. With advancement of different payloads and<br />scientific instruments the rover may able to map the large tracts of the surface thus do complex<br />tasks and experiments. Notion Robotics Lab plans to execute with the partnership with<br />Universities and Space Agencies thus proposing broader experiments in futuristic lunar mission.<br />Keywords:- Autonomous Co-operative Rover, Artificial Intelligence, Scientific Instruments,<br />Understanding Life, Lunar Lander</p>

Research on a lunar mobile spiral surface-soil sampler

This article presents the design of a spiral sampling device to perform lunar soil sampling and packaging, considering the special lunar environment and the physical and mechanical properties of the lunar soil. Combining the mechanical properties of lunar soil and the geometrical characteristics of the sampling device, the contact model between particles and the contact parameters between device and particles were adjusted. Through a discrete element simulation of the sampling process, the particles’ streamline, which is between the screw conveying modules and the sampling bailer, is derived. This result provides a theoretical foundation for the structural optimization of the device. Finally, a sampling experiment in simulated lunar soil verifies the feasibility of the sampling device.