Can Autonomous Moon Robots Aid Elon Musk’s Mars Mission?

Researchers are testing future autonomous moon robots on Mount Etna's lunar-like terrain

Autonomous moon robots will be necessary if we wish to further explore the Solar System. Because of this, researchers are testing future moon robots on Mount Etna's lunar-like terrain.

The anticipated return of humans and robots to the Moon, however, has recently dominated the news. Will robotic explorers become less significant when humans start to travel farther into space? Will these moon robots be of any help in Elon Musk's Mars Mission? While the CEO of Twitter is preoccupied with the microblogging site, his SpaceX mission to Mars has taken a back seat. Elon Musk has faced backlash from people after his shares dropped.

No way. Robotic explorers will undoubtedly become more significant than ever. According to Prof. Alin Albu-Schäffer of the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics at the German AerospaceCenter, Munich, "there are some areas in the Solar System you can't send people, like Venus, or some moons of Jupiter or Saturn."

"They're just too aggressive and far away for us humans. Therefore, robots will be crucial. And robots won't merely find their use in these isolated locations. Robots will be building infrastructure before there are humans on Mars, according to Albu-Schäffer. It's almost clear that the robots will aid astronauts in building lunar bases as well.

Albu-Schäffer is a member of the ARCHES project, which is run by Germany. The ARCHES project, which stands for Autonomous Robotic Networks to Help Modern Societies, brings together a group of specialists from the European Space Agency (ESA), the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) to create networks of robotic systems that cooperate to explore planetary landscapes.

The planetary robots of the future will operate in teams, talking with one another using their artificial minds to resolve issues and accomplish objectives rather than acting as lone envoys waiting for commands from operators on Earth.

Albu-Schäffer and others recently performed an "analog expedition" on the Sicilian slopes of Mount Etna to test such a networked system.

The volcano serves as a decent stand-in for the Moon with its barren environment of fine, granular surface material and hardened lava flows. It has previously been employed for such testing.

In 2017, a prior Helmholtz expedition hit the slopes. The Robotic Exploration Under Extreme Conditions (ROBEX) mission evaluated cutting-edge technology for data transmission, energy exchange, and maximum autonomy. It proved that these technologies might be used in upcoming exploration missions, and ARCHES is now developing and improving these discoveries.

In 2022, the ARCHES analog mission ran from June 13 to July 9, 2022. Three various scenarios were tried out. The first, known as GEO I, utilized as much onboard automation as possible while two rovers (LRU1 and LRU2) and a flying drone investigated a terrain patch.

While the rovers explored the region and conducted scientific investigations, the drone surveyed the area from the air. The rovers were powered by a central, stationary "lander," which also served as a Wi-Fi hub so they could interact with one another.

According to Albu-Schäffer, if the rover became trapped due to larger rocks, for instance, the flying system would create a map and identify passageways where the rover can travel. For the rover to replan its trajectory, the drone would then communicate that information to it.

The rovers' progress was watched by a control center in the adjacent city of Catania, but, to the greatest extent feasible, they made their own artificially intelligent judgments about where to set up scientific equipment, collect soil samples, and carry out other geological research.

Such outcomes would be used to determine whether regions on Mars or the Moon provide the ideal landing sites for human missions. For instance, the information may show where to locate water or the greatest resources for making building materials or 3D-printed components. By eliminating the need to transport all of these items from Earth, such building and resource extraction would dramatically lower the cost of human missions.

The DLR network gained two more rovers in the second scenario, GEO II. One was the ESA's Human-Robot Interaction Lab's Interact rover. This four-wheeled rover features a robotic grabber hand and is remotely controlled. The other was a crawler that resembled a centipede that KIT provided. Its unique locomotion technology allowed it to traverse far more difficult terrain than the wheeled rovers could. Additionally, it extended the range of the ESA rover by acting as a communications relay between the lander and the latter.

Trials featured a total of 50 participants from various universities. Team building as a result became another factor in the success. "Because we had these individuals cooperating and creating the fundamentals for such space missions, there was a lot of community building. So, in my opinion, the four-week campaign we ran up there on the mountain with the researchers was invaluable, says Albu-Schäffer.