Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer
Cuberover for Lunar Resource Site Evaluation
Project Description
The proposed innovation is a Lunar CubeRover specialized as a 2 kg payload to evaluate lander ejecta and to characterize small-rover trafficability. This CubeRover and its roles are specific to the RFP though broadly more general and impactful for exploration enterprise. The proposal offers the prospect for standardization, democratization and broad applicability of CubeRover analogous to the way that CubeSats transformed the domain of Earth orbit and SmallSat enterprise. For the specific context of this proposal, CubeRover is specialized to address III-C-2 In-situ Lunar Surface Trafficability (topic III-C-2) and Descent Engine Blast Ejecta Phenomena (topic III-D-4).
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Anticipated Benefits
CubeRover opens the prospect for a class of light, affordable, frequent and standardized planetary surface deployments. This is transformational in its own right.
A substantial commercial movement is evolving to layer robotics over hobby-grade remote control. This is a high demand for the automation capabilities that are proposed here using minimal assets like fixed monocular camera, limited computing and small-scale, low-powered platforms. The terrain modeling is highly relevant to non-NASA applications as encountered in nuclear waste cleanup, More »
A substantial commercial movement is evolving to layer robotics over hobby-grade remote control. This is a high demand for the automation capabilities that are proposed here using minimal assets like fixed monocular camera, limited computing and small-scale, low-powered platforms. The terrain modeling is highly relevant to non-NASA applications as encountered in nuclear waste cleanup, More »
Project Library
Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astrobotic Technology, Inc. | Lead Organization | Industry | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
Kennedy Space Center
(KSC)
|
Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Kennedy Space Center, Florida |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
Florida
-
Pennsylvania
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