Winners of NASA Great Moonbuggy Race

The team from the University of Alabama in Huntsville took top prize in the college division of NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race with a time of 4 minutes and 3 seconds [NASA/MSFC/Emmett Given].

Lori Meggs and Megan Davidson
NASA / Marshall Space Flight Center

America's space agency today crowned its vehicular engineering victors at the close of the 19th annual NASA Great Moonbuggy Race at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The team from Petra Mercado High School in Humacao, Puerto Rico won first place in the high school division; racers from the University of Alabama in Huntsville Team 1, claimed the college-division trophy.

The winning teams outraced more than 80 teams from 20 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Approximately 600 student drivers, engineers and mechanics -- plus their team advisors and cheering sections -- gathered April 13-14 for the harrowing "space race."

Organized by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, the race challenges students to design, build and race lightweight, human-powered buggies. Traversing the grueling half-mile course, which simulates the cratered lunar surface, race teams face many of the same engineering challenges dealt with by Apollo-era lunar rover developers at the Marshall Center in the late 1960s. The winning teams post the fastest vehicle assembly and race times in their divisions, with the fewest on-course penalties.

Read the full article HERE.

Second Generation ATHLETE lunar vehicle

The second generation ATHLETE lunar vehicle with mock habitat as payload [NASA/JPL].

Matt Heverly, Jaret Matthews,
Matt Frost & Chris McQuin
NASA/JPL/California Institute of Technology

Proceedings of the 40th Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium, (pg. 317-326)
NASA/Kennedy Space Center, May 2010

The Tri-ATHLETE vehicle is the second generation of a wheel-on-limb vehicle being developed to support the return of humans to the lunar surface. This paper describes the design, assembly, and test of the Tri-ATHLETE robotic system with a specific emphasis on the limb joint actuators. The design and implementation of the structural components is discussed, and a novel and low cost approach to approximating flight-like cabling is also presented. The paper concludes with a discussion of the “second system effect” and other lessons learned as well as results from a three week long field trial of the vehicle in the Arizona desert.

In order to establish a continual human presence on the Moon we must develop assisting infrastructure that can carry cargo as well as provide mobility to the astronauts for exploration and the development of a central, but not necessarily fixed, lunar base. The Tri-ATHLETE vehicle system is a new form of two cooperative robotic vehicles that can act individually or physically connect together through a structural pallet to transport and manipulate cargo.

The basis of the ATHLETE (All Terrain Hex Limed Extra Terrestrial Explorer) robot is the wheel-on-limb vehicle concept. This hybrid mobility platform enables the vehicle to traverse at high speeds across benign terrain, as well as enabling walking, by locking the wheels and using them as feet, on extreme terrain. This vehicle architecture also allows for manipulation since the vehicle is stable on three or more wheels. Non-adjacent limbs can be lifted and used to interact with the environment.

A tool mechanism at the end of the limb, attached to the wheel hub, allows for interchangeable tools, such as a gripper or an auger, to be used for manipulation. This unique vehicle design allows for significant weight savings over a traditional planetary roving vehicle that must have large wheels to allow for low ground pressure as well as high torque wheel actuators since the vehicle cannot walk in extremely soft or steep terrain.

Tri-ATHLETE lunar vehicle Michelin Lunar Wheel impacting a 10-cm rock [NASA/JPL].

The ATHLETE project started in March of 2005. The first generation vehicle was completed in October of that same year. This 1000-kg, 2-m tall vehicle was developed rapidly with the intent of providing a hardware platform to aid in the development of the robotic system’s software. This software development vehicle ended up performing five field tests in natural terrain throughout the United States.

These field tests enabled the team to test the vehicle’s capabilities such as traversability over soft terrain, walking, repelling, and manipulation in unstructured environments.

From this first prototype several new capabilities were discovered and several vehicle deficiencies were revealed.

Review the presentation (PDF), HERE.

Lunar Outpost Life Support Architecture Study Based on a High-Mobility Exploration Scenario

Figure 1. Scenario 12.0.1 Lunar Outpost schematic. Lunar Electric Rovers (LER) are shown without a Portable Utility Pallet (PUP) Larger view available in source and through the image above.

Kevin E. Lange
Jabobs Technology, Inc.

Molly S. Anderson
NASA JSC

International Conference on Environmental Systems
Barcelona, July 11-15, 2010

An American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics paper presenting results of a life support architecture study based on a 2009 NASA lunar surface exploration scenario known as Scenario 12.

The study focuses on the assembly complete outpost configuration and includes pressurized rovers as part of a distributed outpost architecture in both stand-alone and integrated configurations. A range of life support architectures are examined reflecting different levels of closure and distributed functionality. Monte Carlo simulations are used to assess the sensitivity of results to volatile high-impact mission variables, including the quantity of residual Lander oxygen and hydrogen propellants available for scavenging, the fraction of crew time away from the outpost on excursions, total extravehicular activity hours, and habitat leakage. Surpluses or deficits of water and oxygen are reported for each architecture, along with fixed and 10-year total equivalent system mass estimates relative to a reference case. System robustness is discussed in terms of the probability of no water or oxygen resupply as determined from the Monte Carlo simulations.

New to the NTRS database, HERE.

Marshall hosts the 2010 Great Moonbuggy Race

A team from Ohio State University competes at NASA's 16th annual Great Moonbuggy Race. This year's race is shaping up to be one of the best ever! Approximately 75 high school and college teams from around the world are competing in Huntsville, Ala., on April 9-10. It's an off-world racing event like no other! Check back at the NASA Moonbuggy site for the latest news and photos. NASA hosts the 2009 competition photo gallery here. [NASA/MSFC].

The 17th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race will be held April 9-10, 2010 in Huntsville, Alabama, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Student teams are required to design vehicles around a gauntlet of engineering challenges similar to problems faced by the original Apollo moon rover team.

Each Moonbuggy is human powered and carries two students, one female and one male, over a half-mile simulated lunar terrain, including "craters," rocks, "lava" ridges, inclines and "lunar" regolith.

Vehicles are expected to be of "proof-of-concept" engineering test models rather than final production models. Each student team of six members is responsible for building their own buggy, and drivers chosen from each team must also be among the vehicle's builders.

As a part of the competition, and prior to course testing, the disassembled Moonbuggy entries must be carried to the starting line with components contained within a volume of 4' x 4' x 4' - constraints similar to those faced by the original Lunar Roving Vehicle. At the starting line, the entries will be assembled and readied for course testing and evaluated for safety. Assembly occurs one time prior to the first course run.

The top three winning teams in one high school and one college division will be those consuming the shortest total time assembling their vehicles and traversing the course. Each team is permitted two runs of the course, and the shortest course time will be added to the assembly time for the final event total.

Some 1,088 high school, college and university students from 20 states and Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, Bangladesh, Serbia, India and Romania are enrolled to participate in the race this year.

Students start preparing for the race during the fall semester. They must design, build and test a sturdy, collapsible, lightweight vehicle that addresses engineering problems like those overcome by the original Apollo-era lunar rover development team at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville for the Apollo science "J" missions, beginning with Apollo 15 in 1971.

Top prizes are awarded to the three teams in both the high school and college/university divisions that post the fastest race times, which include assembly and penalty times. A variety of other prizes are given by race corporate sponsors. These include “rookie of the year” and the “featherweight” award, presented to the team with the lightest, fastest buggy.

“NASA is committed to inspiring young people in science, technology, engineering and math, and the Great Moonbuggy Race is an excellent way for us to reach out to young people and get them excited and involved in technical opportunities available to them,” said Mike Selby, an avionics technical assistant in the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Engineering Directorate.

While completing his engineering degree at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Selby was a member of the school’s moonbuggy teams, helping them to a second-place finish in 1995 and first place in 1996. Since 2001, he has served each year as a volunteer scorekeeper.

The race is hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and is sponsored by Lockheed Martin Corporation, The Boeing Company, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Jacobs Engineering ESTS Group.

Habitat Demonstration Unit: An Overview

Figure 1 from "The Habitat Demonstration Unit Project Overview," Illustration of the latest Constellation Lunar Scenario 12.1 "Excursion Configuration." The Pressurized Excursion Module (PEM) depicted at the center will be represented by the "HDU" and tested this summer as part of the 2010 Desert Research and Technologies Simulations ("Desert Rats") test objectives [NASA].

A technique being utilized in NASA's lunar architecture analysis is analog testing of the lunar environment in desert locales. Running through potential "day in the life" scenarios at a lunar outpost with prototype equipment allows designers insight into the utilization of the proposed systems and refines architecture and operations concepts. A series of Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert-RATS) have been held in locations such as Moses Lake, Washington and Black Point Lava Flow, Arizona, where the most recent test in September 2009 was performed with a Lunar Electric Rover, and a fourteen day excursion was practiced. The 2010 session of Desert-RaTS is planned for Black Point Lava Flow where two LERs will operate together and add a full scale lunar habitat prototype, the Habitat Demonstration Unit to the two LERs to allow for a 14-28 day mission.

(Earth and Space Conference 2010, Honolulu, March 15-17)

Read the full Overview (Adobe .pdf) HERE.

The Development of Wheels for the Lunar Roving Vehicle

Vivake Asnani, Damon Delap, and Colin Creager
NASA - Glenn Research Center

Abstract - The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) was developed for NASA’s Apollo program so astronauts could cover a greater range on the lunar surface, carry more science instruments, and return more soil and rock samples than by foot. Because of the unique lunar environment, the creation of flexible wheels was the most challenging and time consuming aspect of the LRV development. Wheels developed for previous lunar systems were not sufficient for use with this manned vehicle; therefore, several new designs were created and tested. Based on criteria set by NASA, the choices were narrowed down to two, the wire mesh wheel developed by General Motors (GM), and the hoop spring wheel developed by the Bendix Corporation. Each of these underwent intensive mechanical, material, and terramechanical analyses, and in the end, the wire mesh wheel was chosen for the LRV. Though the wire mesh wheel was determined to be the best choice for its particular application, it may be insufficient towards achieving the objectives of future lunar missions that could require higher tractive capability, increased weight capacity, or extended life. Therefore lessons learned from the original LRV wheel development and suggestions for future Moon wheel projects are offered.

Read the full report (Adobe Reader) HERE.

Soviet Lunokhod (Luna 17, Nov 1970 & Luna 21, Jan 1973). Teleoperated from Earth, 8 traction wheels, 800 kg with a max speed of 2 kph and a range of 37 kilometers.

MET - (Apollo 14, Feb 1971). Seventy-five kilos on two free wheels, towed by EVA crew with an approximate range of three kilometers.

LRV - (Apollo 15, July 1971; Apollo 16, April 1972 & Apollo 17, Dec 1972) Operated by astronauts on-board with a joystick, on four traction wheels, a maximum speed of 16 kph, a loaded mass 700 kg and a range 36 kilometers.

Testing for the Future

NASA Image of the Day, Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 spotlighted the Lunar Electric Rover (LER), being tested at NASA Johnson Space Center's planetary analog test site. LER will be part of the Desert RATS (Research and Technology Studies) Analog Field Test in Arizona in September. Image Credit: NASA/Franklin Fitzgerald

Suit ports

The Lunar Electric Rover (LER) is equipped with a time and space saving concept called suit ports. The suit ports are located on the aft bulkhead of the LER, and are designed to allow astronauts to quickly go from driving in a shirtsleeve environment to Extravehicular Activity (EVA) in their space suits. The suit port will allow the crew to enter and exit their EVA suits via a rear-entry hatch, while never having to bring the suit inside, keeping the internal cabin mostly free of dust. The suit port will also minimize the loss of consumables when it is depressurized for EVA, extending duration of an LER sortie. The crew uses alignment guides for docking to the suit port, and electromechanical mechanisms to lock and unlock the suit in place and also to open and close hatches. This is an upgrade from last year’s suit port concept that used all mechanically-actuated mechanisms with levers that the crew had to move. This suit port concept also includes an environmental shelter for the suits that will protect them from dust, thermal extremes, and micrometeoroid protection.

From the Desert RATS NASA Blog

Goodyear Airless Radials

The Apollo manned lunar rover, which flew to the Moon on the final three science, of "J" missions, Apollo 15, 16 & 17, were steel-belted, packed on-board their lunar modules like a combination closet-guest bed and ironing board. On Earth, the little air inside the metal exoskeleton that has inspired billions of rugged consumer tires ever since became many pounds per square inch of pressure, with nothing but the airless vacuum of space to offer opposing pressure. They were ingenious enough to inspire Goodyear to design a more rugged version for carrying heavier cargoes greater distances for longer periods.

Lunar Pioneer discussed the design back in April. More information, via On Orbit, surfaced today, courtesy of Goodyear and NASA Glenn.

"The new "Spring Tire" with 800 load bearing springs is designed to carry much heavier vehicles over much greater distances than the wire mesh tire previously used on the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). The new tire will allow for broader exploration and the eventual development and maintenance of a lunar outpost.

"According to Vivake Asnani, NASA's principal investigator at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, this was a significant change in requirements that required innovation. "With the combined requirements of increased load and life, we needed to make a fundamental change to the original moon tire," he said. "What the Goodyear-NASA team developed is an innovative, yet simple network of interwoven springs that does the job. The tire design seems almost obvious in retrospect, as most good inventions do."

"The Spring Tire was installed on NASA's Lunar Electric Rover test vehicle and put through its paces at the Johnson Space Center's "Rock Yard" in Houston where it performed successfully."

It should be mentioned, at least in passing, according to Motor Trend, that Michelin tires carried the Lunar Electric Rover "demo" through it's publicity tours, such as taking up the absolute rear of the Presidential Inaugural Parade, last January.

The On Orbit posting can be appreciated HERE.

Students on the Big Island of Hawai'i help develop micro lunar rover

Kelson Lau and Jordan Olive are developing technology that will be implemented on NASA's Lunar Micro Rover. (Photo courtesy of the Governor's Office)

While Americans across the country celebrated the 40th anniversary of man’s first walk on the moon this week, two Hawaii students are participating in a NASA summer internship program, where they are developing technology that will be used on the Lunar Micro Rover.

Kelson Lau, a recent Waiakea High School graduate and current University of Hawaii at Manoa student, and Jordan Olive from the University of Hawaii at Hilo, are participating in the NASA Robotics Academy, a NASA multi-center, 10-week residential summer internship for students specifically interested in robotics.

Both were participants in Waiakea High School’s award-winning student robotics program.

Lau, who was presented with the Governor’s Innovation Award in 2008, is working on the Solid-State Cooling System for the Lunar Micro Rover to test a method of cooling the rover’s CPU and other sensitive electronics such as the motor controller in the harsh lunar environment.

Olive is working on a dust deflection device, and its effectiveness in space, developing circuit boards that will control and regulate power onboard the lunar micro rover, and designing a “hot plate” that will test the rover for space readiness.

“My participation in the Waiakea High School Robotics Program has easily been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I not only gained many priceless memories, but met amazing mentors and people, made new friends, gained skills, and had amazing opportunities opened for me,” Lau said.

“I believe that my participation in robotics has given me the skills and confidence needed to participate in the Robotics Academy Internship at NASA and contribute to the program.”

Olive also expressed his appreciation for the skills gained by participating in student robotics programs.

“Hawaii [is] doing something right! As a newly graduated senior last July, I was very intimidated to join the team of scientists and engineers working on the Lunar Micro Rover at NASA Ames Research Center,” he said. “The experience gained from Waiakea High School’s Robotics and Hawaii Space Grant funded fellowship projects gave me enough ‘know how knowledge’ to actually come up with a device (electrodynamics dust shield) that will actually be implemented on the Lunar Micro Rover. Robotics in Hawaii is no little thing.”

Robotics is a critical component of the Lingle-Aiona Administration’s Hawaii Innovation Initiative because it engages students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

The competition also fosters students’ teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills that will better prepare them to enter the work force.

For more information about student robotics programs, visit www.robotics.hawaii.gov

Learn more about NASA summer internships and the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium fellowship at www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu

Learned Robotic Rover Mobility

So new, it has no "catchy acronym yet..."

Weird new NASA rovers, really get around

"At some point on their five-year journey, Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have both gotten their feet stuck in the soil, and NASA is taking notes for the design of the next generation of rovers.

"In 2005, Opportunity spent five weeks spinning her wheels in a dune later dubbed “Purgatory.” Last week, Spirit sank into a sandpit scientists are calling “Troy,” and could stay there for weeks — or forever.

"But rovers of the future may have an easier time of it. NASA scientists are building an army of prototypes with new and ever weirder ways to rove.

Read all about Hopper, LEMUR & CLIFFBOT Here.

Spotlight on Carnegie-Mellon's Scarab Rover

Fresh from a second round of Ground Truth testing on the Island of Hawai'i, CM's Scarab is detailed in a recent report from The Future of Things
Scarab was designed from the start for conditions on the Moon.

The Carnegie Mellon Lunar Rover Initiative put the Scarab through two series of extended tests in 2008. The first took place in Moses Lake, Washington in June and the second in Mauna Kea, Hawaii in October and November. Most of the tests in Washington explored the capabilities of the laser navigation system and the vehicle's mobility. The tests in Hawaii also exercised the navigation systems in a lunar-like terrain filled with volcanic ash. Drawbar tests to examine what happens when forces pull back on the Scarab were also performed as were tests of the velocity camera and drilling system.

From The Future of Things, HERE.

15 teams make it to the Finals of NASA's Lunar Design Challenge

Fifteen teams made it to the Finals of a NASA and National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) competition challenging university students to think about conditions astronauts will experience upon the renewal of extended human activity on the moon, and afterward to design projects that could become part of lunar exploration.

Engineering students won the right to compete against each other at the 2009 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage, or RASC-AL Forum, in Cocoa Beach, June 1-4.

“The RASC-AL steering committee of NASA and industry experts was impressed by the creativity, ingenuity and thoughtfulness of this years student entries,” said Pat Troutman, senior systems analyst NASA Langley. “Next Generation engineers are going to be crucial in helping NASA get back to the moon, then to Mars and beyond.”

The five graduate student teams include University of Texas in Austin; University of Maryland, College Park; a joint effort from University of Florida in Gainesville and Arizona State University, Tempe; and two Georgia Tech groups that reside at NIA.

Ten undergraduate student teams made the cut, from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden; Arizona State; a combination of Penn State, Polytechnic Institute of NYU-Brooklyn and Georgia Tech of Atlanta; U. of Maryland; Clarkson U. in Potsdam, NY; University of Alabama in Huntsville; Virginia Tech, ; Worcester Polytechnic Institute; NC State; and a NC State team that resides at NIA.

The student teams submitted a summary of and an outreach plan for their proposed projects. Their work was based on one of four themes: outpost to settlement, initial lunar outpost, bringing the world along with virtual exploration and novel approaches to increase sample return from the moon.

The teams must submit a written report, prepare a poster and give an oral presentation at the RASC-AL forum. The steering committee will score the students’ work and award first and second prizes in undergraduate and graduate categories. To cover costs of travel, registration and incidentals each team receives $5,875.

“NIA is impressed by the quality of proposed design projects and we anticipate a highly competitive forum,” said Dr. Bernard Grossman, vice president of education and outreach at NIA. “RASC-AL is a great venue to identify todays university students grasp of engineering concepts.”

The June forum will give faculty and students the chance to meet with NASA and industry experts, introduce concepts and data from the competition into NASA exploration program planning, develop relationships that could lead to participation in other NASA student research programs and show the benefits of NASA-university-industry cooperation.

For more information about the 2009 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage competition, please go to http://www.nianet.org/rascal

Virtual Flash tour of the Lunar Electric Rover

Hat Tip to NASA Edge via Mark Tillotson

NASA has posted a respectible Flash animation allowing a tour of the Constellation Lunar Electric Rover/Chariot assembly, in available settings including the Washington Mall, the apparent lunar surface, and a virtual showroom/clean room.

NASA EDGE "posted this prior to the Inaugural," and "some of you may have already seen it," but I'm posting it now because I thought it was a lot easier for most busy Lunatics to zip through than downloading and installing Digital Spaces' DARPA/cold rover simulation, which is way more fun, but more useful for designers working to win the Google Lunar X-Prize.

NASA describes it as "one of a new generation of rovers which NASA is currently testing."

View the NASA Flash animation HERE.

Michelin Tires On Lunar Chariot

MOTOR TREND - WIDE OPEN THROTTLE

Taking their tires to a whole other level (quite literally) is French tire maker Michelin, who has recently been approved to supply its wheel and tire combination to NASA's lunar rover program.

Through the use of a unique textile tread, Michelin and NASA developers created a wheel/tire combo capable of maintaining flexibility and constant ground pressure (aka grip) over loose soils, rocky landscapes and craters. It also achieves these feats while working in below freezing temperatures. In case you're wondering, fine tuning of the advanced rollers didn't take place on the moon, but rather on Hawaii's lunar-like volcanic surfaces.

Engineers claim their most advanced set of tires is 3.3 times more efficient than the original Apollo Lunar Rover wheels. Together, NASA and Michelin have more than 20 years experience in producing space-age tires.

Source: Michelin

Cat shoots for the moon

Company teams with NASA to build habitats, roads on lunar surface

By PAUL GORDON of the Peoria Journal Star

PEORIA - Caterpillar Inc. doesn't plan to stop at being the No. 1 construction equipment maker in the world. It's aiming for the universe, with NASA as its partner.

Caterpillar and NASA - the National Aeronautics and Space Administration - are getting closer to having the right earthmoving - er, moonmoving - equipment available to put on the moon in less than a decade to build habitats, roads and other infrastructure that could sustain life on the lunar surface.

"We're pretty far along. I would say our partnership with Caterpillar is right on schedule," said Lucien Junkin, NASA's chief engineer of the Chariot project the two have been working on since 2006.

Chariot is the name given to the vehicle, which NASA calls
a "lunar truck" that is being co-developed using Caterpillar's robotics technology and NASA's knowledge of the surface, which Junkin describes as rocky and sandy, devoid of any moisture. "The moon 'dust' is more like crushed gravel, with fine, sharp edges," he said.

The technology is being developed in a Caterpillar skid steer loader and later will be transferred to the Chariot, which would be able to be operated through remote control or automation, said Eric Reiners, engineering manager of electronics and controls in Caterpillar's Technical Solutions Division.

The Chariot and the work Caterpillar and NASA are doing on the project is detailed - to date, anyway - in a pair of brief videos that can be viewed on Caterpillar's Web site, www.cat.com.

In the video, Junkin said NASA began renewing its interest in moon exploration when President Bush, in early 2004, called on the space agency to find a way for man to live on the moon.

Junkin said NASA, knowing that meant infrastructure would be needed where there is nothing but moon dust now, "turned to the people we believe are the best at doing things like building roads, berms, landing strips or digging and trenching, and that's Caterpillar."

Junkin, himself a nationally known expert in robotics, said NASA will tap Caterpillar's expertise not only in machine technology, but also the best way to make the machine do the tasks at hand.

"Mankind has never done construction or moved dirt on another celestial body. That's why we wanted Caterpillar's expertise," Junkin said.

Caterpillar, said Reiners, knew of NASA's interest in sustaining life on the moon from an earlier project. "So we got together and agreed to start working together again, exchanging intellectual property," he said.

NASA wanted help to find a way to make the machines work without a human operator, something Caterpillar has experience with, Reiner said. "Robotics and automation takes the human operator out of dangerous situations," he said.

Even if there are humans on the moon when work occurs, much of the moon dust moving will be done by remote control from the lunar habitat or from Earth, or through programmed automation.

That's because humans can be out in the elements of the moon only a short period at a time. Part of that is because of the extremes in a lunar day, which is the equivalent of 28 earth days: It can go from 270 degrees during the day to 250 degrees below zero at night.

"I would say we are at various stages in the technology development," Reiners said. One problem with trying to operate the lunar truck by remote control from Earth is the distance creates a time lag of several seconds between the time the command is given and executed and acknowledged. That's why work is being done so the machine can be programmed to execute certain functions on its own.

Junkin and Reiners said the Chariot project, part of NASA's Constellation Program, is on schedule to send equipment and begin doing infrastructure in 2016 or 2017, with humans returning to the moon by 2020 or 2021.

"It's very exciting," said Reiners, who has been with Caterpillar 21 years. "The people who are doing the day-to-day development work here at Mossville are very excited about what we're doing.

"It fits very well with what Cat has been doing around the world, and now we are looking at humanity expanding its presence to other places outside Earth. Some are calling the moon our eighth continent. It only makes sense Cat would be on hand to help make it happen," he said.

Paul Gordon can be reached at 686-3288 or pgordon@pjstar.com

Georgia Tech Partnering to Create National Robotics Strategy

Academic Leaders in Robotics Research Announce Effort To Create National Strategy for Robotics Growth

Citing the critical importance of the continued growth of robotics to U.S. competitiveness, 11 universities are taking the lead in developing an integrated national strategy for robotics research. The United States is the only nation engaged in advanced robotics research that does not have such a research roadmap.

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC), a program of the National Science Foundation, is providing support for developing the roadmap, which will be a unified research agenda for robotics across federal agencies, industry and the universities.

The effort began last year and includes representatives from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University and the universities of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California- Berkeley, Southern California, Utah and Illinois, as well as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Henrik I. Christensen, the KUKA Chair of Robotics at Georgia Tech and a principal investigator for the CCC, is leading the group effort to develop the roadmap with the involvement of industry.

This spring, a series of workshops are being organized and this fall a National Robotics Senior Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., will take place. The conference will review the preliminary results from the workshops and take steps toward an integrated national research agenda. The roadmap will then be reported to the year-old Congressional Robotics Caucus, headed by U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) and U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.).

“It is essential that the United States begins to solidly outline a leadership position in robotics,” said Carnegie Mellon President Jared L. Cohon. “Robotics already is having a transformative impact on the workplace, from the factory floor to hospital operating rooms. In the decades ahead, this impact can be extended to our homes and our highways to increase our ability to live independently and to save lives.”

“The planning process now getting under way is a historic opportunity to build upon broad-based collaboration among industry and academic leaders in the field of robotics,” said Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough. “We want to create a plan that will keep this nation competitive in a technology that is rapidly advancing.”

The failure of the robotics community to previously speak with one voice has resulted in inconsistent funding and missed opportunities, said Matthew T. Mason, director of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute. “The technology is finding wider application, but its full potential is not fully appreciated by policy makers,” he explained. “We need to develop a common vision so that we can work effectively with the Congressional Robotics Caucus and with funding agencies.”

Christensen noted that all of the planning events are designed to focus on the research needs that are vital to the development of a growing robotics industry.

“Several key competencies are not available today,” Christensen said. “Through a community effort that includes end-users, industry and academia, the key challenges and opportunities will be identified. The workshops and conferences will allow us to develop a mature plan.”

“The key to the workshops will be the collaborative discussions between representatives from both academia and industry,” stated John Reid, Director, Product Technology and Innovation at John Deere’s Moline Technology Innovation Center. “We need to proceed in a market-driven fashion to envision key future robotics-enabled capabilities and then map these capabilities to the required robotics technologies that we need to be researching and developing today.”

Doyle and Wamp of the Congressional Robotics Caucus expressed enthusiasm for the effort.

“We applaud the researchers at some of our nation’s top universities for this effort to craft a national agenda for robotics research,” they said in a statement released by the caucus. “We especially want to commend the presidents of Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech for their initiative in organizing this conference. The Congressional Robotics Caucus looks forward to reviewing the results of this important work so that we can more fully understand the impact that robotics is likely to have on the future security and prosperity of our nation.”

ESA to undertake lunar rover study

By Rob Coppinger
NASASpaceFlight.com
The European Space Agency is offering €500,000 ($786,500) for a pressurised lunar rover (PLR) phase 0/A study to produce a conceptual design, to evaluate its functional, technical and operational requirements and determine its likely cost and development schedule. The closing date for proposals is 14 May.

ESA envisages a rover with a mass from 5,000kg (11,000lb) to 14,000kg that would only be delivered by NASA's Altair lunar lander.

China unveils lunar rover prototype

BBC

Xinhua - Chinese scientists and engineers have built prototypes of the country's planned lunar rover module, the science and technology commission of Shanghai said Wednesday.

The city's lunar rover research team has made models of different types and conducted feasibility and technological trials.

The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology has made significant progress in key technologies for the locomotion system, it said.

China launched its first lunar probe, Chang'e I, in October last year. The country plans to land its first lunar rover on the moon by 2013.

Engineers unveil China moon rover - News.BBC.co.uk:

The 1.5m (5ft) high, 200kg (440lbs) rover should transmit video in real time, dig into and analyse soil, and produce 3D images of the lunar surface.

China is working on a three-stage plan for exploration of the Earth’s Moon, which includes sending a lunar orbiter called Chang’e-1 some time this year.

This will be followed by a soft landing in 2012 and the return of lunar samples in another five years.The US has outlined its vision for the exploration of the Moon, which will involve returning humans to the lunar surface by 2020.

Read more HERE.

Popular Science: More on Athlete

The Lunar Habitat Hauler

Popular Science Online has posted perhaps the best, well, "popular" close up look yet at Athlete, under going testing at JPL. A featured video shows off more nifty detail of what is certain to become an iconic and integral part of NASA's nomadic lunar exploration paradigm, now being shown-off to the general public.

Annemarie Conte posted the close-up video presentation at PopSci Tuesday afternoon, April 22.

"The mission-ready robot," she writes, "which will be about twice the size of the prototype pictured here and made of steel, should be able to haul a load of up to 15 tons pretty much anywhere it wants to—as long as it obeys a 3mph speed limit. “That’s about as fast as you can go without risking flipping over because of the low gravity,” explains Brian Wilcox, the primary investigator on the Athlete project...."

"Scientists at JPL hope to rocket Athlete to the moon for unmanned testing as early as 2012. What would come next depends on the success of NASA’s plans for manned space exploration"

Read more HERE.