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NASA to Demonstrate Moon Rover
coondoggie writes "NASA will this week demonstrate its lunar robot rover equipped with a drill designed to find water and oxygen-rich soil on the moon. NASA said the engineering challenge of building such as drilling system was daunting because a robot rover designed for prospecting within lunar craters has to operate in continual darkness at extremely cold temperatures with little power. The moon has one-sixth the gravity of Earth, so a lightweight rover will have a difficult job resisting drilling forces and remaining stable.The project is just one demonstration of the collaboration NASA is utilizing to bring together its next moon shot. For example, Carnegie Mellon was responsible for the robot's design and testing, and the Northern Centre for Advanced Technology built the drilling system. NASA's Glenn Research Center contributed the rover's power management system. NASA's Ames Research Center built a system that navigates the rover in the dark. The Canadian Space Agency funded a Neptec camera that builds three-dimensional images of terrain using laser light, NASA said."
Does it run Linux?
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer." -Adolf Hitler
"We are one Nation, we are one People." -The One 'leader'
is hopping over 2 troughs in rapid succession while shooting the moguls that immediately follow
Good question. I'm more interested in if they're going to ask observers to wear "alien" costumes while they film it. A few years from now, after the "landing" on the moon, they show their footage of the moon "landing" with the "aliens" who happened to be there and tell Congress that they need more money to investigate these "aliens". After all, NASA has learned their lesson from the first fake...I mean the first landing.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
Bring on the dynamite!
so.. what are the odds of the robotic rover being hit by a very high speed mass impacting in an attempt to locate hydrogen fired from another NASA section?
I can see it now... "mission controller! we did not find any hydrogen, but we picked up large amounts of refined titanium, gold and radioactive isotopes! aliens!"
meanwhile in another room perplexed and gloomy tech monitor their screens in woe and confusion, whilst listening to the cheers next door...
So the truth comes out! They are planning a rover mission, but just in case their math fails to match up and the rover ends up crashing on the moon, they will just say they were searching for hydrogen.
I hope the folks who work on the various rovers get together periodically and exchange ideas -- a standard data bus, a secure common operating system, reuse of algorithms, joint testing of components... could save time, money, and mistakes.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
I think that with the moon's lower gravity you could get away with hauling much more weight in batteries.
I assume here they are referring to either: 1) The problem of the drill staying still and the rover rotating around it. 2) Downward force on the drill lifting the rover up.
With conventional earth-bound drilling these problem are solved in the case of 1: by using multiple counter-rotating bits and in the case of 2: Auger bits, which both remove material and bite into the material at the bottom of the hole with a screw, pulling themselves downward without requiring downward pressure on the drill.
I would certainly think that counter-rotating heads would work on the moon, though use of an auger might depend on the material properties of moon rock.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Moon Rover, wider than a mile?
Wider than a mile
I'm crossing you in style someday
You dream maker, you heart breaker
Wherever you're going I'm going your way
Two drifters off to see the world
Theres such a lot of world to see
Were after the same rainbows end
Waiting round the band
My huckleberry friend, Moon Rover
And me
It's hard to beat the energy & power density of internal combustion engines. Since there is no air, your propellant is heavier, since you'd need to carry the oxidizer, but I suspect that you'd still have an advantage in range. In The Case for Mars Robert Zubrin has proposed internal combustion Mars rovers that could use CO2 as an oxidizer. (I forget what the fuel is, but it can be made from methane derived from local CO2 and hydrogen.) Also, in the book The Rocket Company an automaker funds a trip to the moon where they use a modified SUV carrying its own oxidizer.
We're whalers on the moon,
We carry a harpoon.
But there ain't no whales,
So we tell tall tales,
and sing our whaling tune.
We're whalers on the moon,
We carry a harpoon.
But there ain't no whales So we tell tall tales And sing our whaling tune...
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer." -Adolf Hitler
"We are one Nation, we are one People." -The One 'leader'
From TA: "NASA says it wants to put people on the moon by 2020."
Gotcha! They just admitted that they have never put people on the more before. That whole 1969 bit was just a hoax.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
No, it's not "flamebait". The joke about the lunar landing being faked has been a running joke here on /. for a while. The lunar landing being faked is as outrageous as all of us are really inhabited by alien life forces or that all of us are decedents from just two people.
I guess my sense of humor isn't shared by others. I wish I could just post a fart or something. That seams to be the standard of humor these days.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
The moon has one-sixth the gravity of Earth, so a lightweight rover will have a difficult job resisting drilling forces and remaining stable.
I really tire of all the sensationlism that needs to be tied to everything. Give me a break. This problem has been solved so many times it's not even funnny. How many helicopters which essentially have 0 gravitational force to keep them straight do you see spinning out of control? And that's a complex solution. I think ships anchors are a pretty old tech that's been around a while. How about firing a few pilons into the ground for anchorage. A group of 5th graders can solve this.
It's an article in Network World, but there's no mention of the hardware or OS/software they've used for this robotic rover. The technical details are sparse for a supposedly technical publication. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's interested in knowing more beyond this broad overview.
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer." -Adolf Hitler
"We are one Nation, we are one People." -The One 'leader'
Why don't we wait until the actual event happens before reporting it?
Are we supposed to be preparing ourselves or something?
Or am I missing something?
factor 966971: 966971
lets send a helicopter up on the moon. That will take care of everything. You are so bright. Why not apply for a job at NASA and tell them your solution, and how you can save LOADS of money for them?
Moooooooooooon rover
I believe you can operate during the endless lunar niii-iiiight
Instead of drilling, they could crush things. That way they could call it the Crushinator. Otherwise, they will just have to call it the Drillinator, which does not sound as cool.
Drilling in a low-grav environment? Maybe NASA should call in the assistance of a maverick well driller and his crew of wacky misfits to help get the job done.
Not enough sugar in the coffee this morning? The issues of drilling on the moon are nothing you've ever seen on earth, and none are related to the lower gravity. A few facts (I know, you don't bother with them): Your surface temperature fluctuates from -220 C to + 110 C, with 150 C difference being a good guess for most locations. There are no lubricants that will work over that range, and none that work at -220 C. You have no atmosphere to cool your drill motor, or blow the highly abrasive regolith dust off your seals and bearings. You can't drill using the standard slurry approach to move your debris out of the hole. Your nearest spare parts are 300,000 miles away, and there's no one to loosen that lug nut. You have a very limited power supply from solar cells, and any dust you allow to get on the cells you will not be able to remove. For an easy challenge, try digging a hole in the middle of the Antarctic plateau, middle of winter, with a golf cart full of supplies, and a 5 kW generator for power. Remotely controlled.
I'm aging rapidly, I bought a new game and had no idea if my machine was good for it.
It seems to be a NASA ritual to get ordered to do one thing & focus on the crust instead. So they're putting all this effort into hypothetical lunar science experiments & drawing pictures of manned habitats while ignoring the minor expensive detail of the rocket to get there. Haven't seen any progress on Ares V for years since they got ordered to put a number of basic science missions back on the budget.
I don't know how things worked in your family but I descended from two people (who each descended from two people, who each descended from two people...).
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Why don't they just send a satellite equipped with a CARABAS radar into orbit around the moon?
There is no atmosphere to worry about so you can use a extremely low orbit.
I think ships anchors are a pretty old tech that's been around a while. How about firing a few pilons into the ground for anchorage. A group of 5th graders can solve this.
I'm not sure 5th graders are going to be heavy enough. Besides, they'll probably bitch and moan all the way to the moon.
FYI, the way Scarab solves the problem is with a nice combination of pitch averaging and variable wheel base.
"NASA Plans to Smash Spacecraft into the Moon"
"NASA to Demonstrate Moon Rover"
You know guys, smashing things is not the best way to demonstrate them.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Depends on the size of the group. Though I have to admit it is a long time to hear 'are we there yet'.
Will it blend?
that's an old Andy Williams song, isn't it?
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Did anyone else read that as "NASA to Demonstrate Moon River"?
American, can, will, and must blow up the moon! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHpX5aa5Lz4
I'll grant that it's very dark on the dark side of the moon, but without the convection an atmosphere provides, how cold will it actually be? The only heat loss will be through radiation and what (I imagine little) conduction there is between the rover and the ground. If a vacuum keeps my coffee in my thermos hot, how will it be any different on the moon?
IANARS, but I would think a bigger problem would be keeping the thing from overheating.
For the humor-impaired: Mooninites. josh42042, props for the Mr. Show ref.
"Cheeze it!" - Bender
Have a big empty storage tank and fill it with moon dirt when you get there. Should give enough weight to get some small holes drilled to use to anchor to the rock.
Or indeed When are we there
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
All the way back to Adam and Eve, I take it?
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.