|  | | | | | | Applications for Planetary Exploration
Automation and Robotics is an essential technology for the exploration of the Solar System. ESA has worked on A&R Systems for
- Mars Exploration
- Moon Exploration
- Exploration of other bodies
| | | The chassis of the EXOMArs Demonstration Rover model-D (EXOMARS-D) showing its cross-country ability |
Robotics for Mars Exploration
Mars it is the most Earth-like of the nine planets that make up the solar system. The great distance from Earth (400 million km from the Earth at the farthest point of its orbit) makes travels to Mars long and dangerous. Hence its exploration has been so far carried out only by robotics means.
Thanks to its similarities to Earth (i.e. a solid planet with atmosphere), Mars allows the use of the most diverse robotics means:
- Penetrometers and Robotics Moles for underground exploration
- Rovers (tracked, wheeled or legged) and hoppers for surface exploration
- Aerobots (balloons, blimps, planes and hoppers) for aerial exploration
ESA has a long history of developments of missions to Mars. The earliest work was carried out by the Science Directorate with the Kepler study (1982; 1985) followed by the "Mission to Mars" (1989), the "Marsnet" (1993) and the "Intermarsnet " (1996) studies.
These works prepared for the very succesful "Mars Express" (2003) mission.
The "Exobiology" (1999,2000) study, carried out by the Human Spaceflight Directorate instead prepared for the "ExoMars" (2011) mission.
The A&R Section has through these years developed robotics equipment in support to these studies and missions.
| | The Lunar Robotic Mockup (LRM) | |
Robotics for Lunar Exploration
The Moon is the celestial body closest to Earth. Its relative proximity
made possible the human missions of the 70s (Apollo11-17). A human
return to the Moon is foreseen for the second decade of the century.
Despite the predominant human focus, robotics was and still is an
important element of Lunar exploration. The Apollo missions
were possible only because of the preparatory robotic Surveyor missions
(1966-1969) that allowed to safely investigate the environment of the Lunar
surface.
The Soviet missions Luna 17-21 (1970-1973) showed that fairly long range
exploration was possible with the Lunokhod rovers, teleoperated from
ground. The missions Luna 16,20 and 24 (1970,1972,1976) even managed to
return Lunar samples to Earth.
In fact for the future of Lunar exploration the use of robots can be
envisaged for:
- exploration in hazardous terrain, such as the exploration
of the dark craters in the Lunar poles
- preparation of a human outpost, such ground-work,
transport, assembly and lay-down of habitation/resource modules
- support to human outpost, in the task of maintaining the
outpost infrastructure
- support to (In-Situ Resource Utilisation ISRU), in mining
regolith/ice, transporting it to the ISRU machinery and maintenance of
the ISRU machinery
ESA has studied several possible missions to the Moon. Among the recent
work is the "Mission to the Moon" (1992) study, the "Lunar Exploration
Demonstration Approach (LEDA)” (1994) the
"EUROMOON 2000" (1998) proposed mission and the "Lunar
Exploration Study" (2004) internal study.
All these studies and missions envisaged use of robotics elements,
whose development has been undertaken by the A&R section
| | | The Nanokhod micro-rover initially developed for the INTERMARSNET mission, later adapted for the BepiColombo mission. |
Robotics for the Exploration of other bodies
Robots have been considered by ESA also for the exploration of other
planets/moons/asteroids/comets.:
- Mercury: the ESA BepiColombo mission (launch in 2013) will
study Mercury from orbit. However in the early concept of the mission
there was a lander which had a sophisticated robotic payload including
the Nanokhod microrover. The A&R Section participated in the
definition of this payload and initiated a series of R&D
activities to reduce the criticality of certain elements (i.e.
therover, the imaging system the rover-mounted instrument suite).
- Venus: the ESA Venus Express (launch in 2005) is currently
orbiting the planet. A follow-on mission called Venus Entry Probe (VEP)
has been studied by the Science directorate. VEP will a balloon in the
upper atmospere of Venus. The balloon will in turn release
few robotic micro-probes, which will provide information on the lower
layers of the atmosphere. The A&R Section has been developing
with industry an integrated localisation and data transmission system
for the microprobes.
- Titan: The ESA/NASA Cassini/Huygens mission succesfully
delivered in january 2005 the Huygens probe on the surface of
Titan. The success of the mission has put forward the case for a
follow-on mission which could use Aerobots for surveying a larger part
of the moon.
- Comets: The ESA Rosetta mission (launch in 2004) is
currently on its way to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta will
deliver the Philae lander to the Comet's surface. The lander contains
several A&R technologies among which an automated drilling and
sample distribution system
- Asteroids: ESA has not yet been involved into
asteroid missions. However the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA) has succesfully flown its MUSES-C mission to the Itokawa
asteroid. The MUSES-C mission featured a MIcro/Nano
Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid (MINERVA). The robot, equipped
with hopping locomotion and 3 cameras, was supposed to investigate the
surface of ITOKAWA with 1 mm spatial resolution. Regrettably the
MINERVA failed to land on the asteroid.
Last update: 30 November 2006 | |
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