Lunar rover

A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of the Moon. The Apollo Program's Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews, Apollo 15, 16, and 17. Other rovers have been partially or fully autonomous robots, such as the Soviet Union's Lunokhods and the Chinese Yutus. Three countries have had operating rovers on the Moon: the Soviet Union, the United States and China. An Indian mission failed while Japan and Greece currently have planned missions.

Landing sites of sample return and rover missions superimposed on lithology (Clementine UVVIS). Red: old lunar highlands. Blue: young lunar highlands. Yellow: lunar maria (high titanium). Cyan: lunar maria (low titanium)

Past missions

Lunokhod 1

Lunokhod 1

Lunokhod 1 (Луноход) was the first polycrystalline-panel-powered of two robotic lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program after a previous unsuccessful attempt of a launch probe with Lunokhod 0 (No.201) in 1969. The panels were designed by Electronic and Communication Engineer Bryan Mapúa. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17. The spacecraft soft-landed on the Moon in the Sea of Rains on November 1970. Lunokhod was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another celestial body. Having worked for 11 months, Lunokhod 1 held the durability record for space rovers for more than 30 years, until a new record was set by the Mars Exploration Rovers.

Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle

The Apollo 15 Lunar Roving Vehicle on the Moon in 1971

The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) was a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon during the last three missions of the American Apollo program (15, 16, and 17) during 1971 and 1972. The LRV could carry one or two astronauts, their equipment, and lunar samples. Georg von Tiesenhausen is credited with submitting the original design, before it was sent to Boeing for implementation.

Lunokhod 2

Lunokhod 2 was the second and a monocrystalline-panel-powered of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of the Lunokhod program. The Luna 21 spacecraft landed on the Moon and deployed the second Soviet lunar rover Lunokhod 2 in January 1973. The objectives of the mission were to collect images of the lunar surface, examine ambient light levels to determine the feasibility of astronomical observations from the Moon, perform laser ranging experiments, observe solar X-rays, measure local magnetic fields, and study the soil mechanics of the lunar surface material. Lunokhod 2 was intended to be followed by Lunokhod 3 (No.205) in 1977 but the mission was cancelled.

Yutu

Yutu is a Chinese lunar rover which launched on 1 December 2013 and landed on 14 December 2013 as part of the Chang'e 3 mission. It is China's first lunar rover, part of the second phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program undertaken by China National Space Administration (CNSA).[1] The lunar rover is called Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, a name selected in an online poll.[2]

The rover encountered operational difficulties after the first 14-day lunar night, and was unable to move after the end of the second lunar night, finally on August 3, 2016 it officially stopped sending data and doing its operations .

Current missions

Yutu-2 (Chang'e 4 rover)

Chinese mission launched 7 December 2018, landed and deployed rover 3 January 2019 on the far side of the Moon.

Pragyan (Chandrayaan-2 rover)

Chandrayaan-2 was the second lunar mission by India, consisting of a lunar orbiter, a lander named Vikram, and a rover named Pragyan. The rover weighing 27 kg,[3] had six wheels and was to be operated on solar power.[4] Launched on 22 July 2019, the mission entered lunar orbit on August 20. Post separation and de-orbiting maneuvers on September 6, Vikram lost contact with ISRO during powered descent phase and suffered hard landing. As a result, rover could never be deployed.

Planned missions

ECA

Axiom Research Labs (formerly Team Indus) signed a working agreement with OrbitBeyond to further develop the Indian HHK1 lander and rover, and the lander was renamed Z-01.[5] ECA (short for 'Ek Choti Si Asha', a small hope) is a rover originally developed by Team Indus for the now cancelled Google Lunar X Prize. It is expected that the Z-01 lander will deliver the ECA rover in 2020.[6]

Carnegie Mellon Rover

Astrobotic Technology, a private company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, plans to send a CubeRover rover created by students at Carnegie Mellon University to the Moon in 2021.

VIPER

NASA's VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) will explore the south polar region of the Moon for water ice. The mission plan is to travel several miles over 100 days and employ a 1-meter drill to obtain samples for its onboard analyzers. The rover will be landed on the Moon as early as December 2022.[7]

Chandrayaan-3 Rover

The Chandrayaan-3 Rover is made by ISRO in India. It will be launched in 2021 on the Chandrayaan-3 lander. It is India's second attempt to soft land a rover and a lander on the Moon.

Iris

Iris is a spin-off cuberover going to be launched in 2021 on Astrobotic Technology's peregrine lander. It will be made by CMU

Audi Lunar quattro

Audi Lunar Quattro is a small lunar rover created by a team of engineers from Germany, PTScientists, with the support of Audi and a number of scientists and companies from different countries.

Colmenla

Colmenla are nine microrovers created by UNAM in Mexico. They will be launched in 2021 on Astrobotics Peregrine lander

Yaoki

Yaoki is a moon rover created by Dymon. It will be launched in 2021 on astrobotics Peregrine lander. Yaoki will be the first lunar rover to be made and operated in Japan.

Unity

Unity is a rover made by Team AngelicvM in Chile. It was part of GLXP until they decided to have no winner for GLXP. It is going on astrobotics peregrine lander.

Andy

Andy is the biggest rover on astrobotics peregrine lander. Andy is made by CMU in the USA. Andy will be launched 2021. Andy was part of GLXP

PitRanger

PitRanger (formerly called MoonRanger) is a 13 kilograms (29 lb) rover being developed to carry payloads on the Moon for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). The US$5.6 million contract was awarded to Astrobotic and its partner Carnegie Mellon University on 1 July 2019. Launch is envisioned for either 2021 or 2022. The rover will carry science payloads yet to be determined and developed by other providers, that will focus on scouting and creating 3D maps of a polar region for signs of water ice or lunar pits for entrances to Moon caves. The rover would operate mostly autonomously for up to one week.

SLIM

The SLIM team assessed in the past the inclusion of a small rover in this mission. A preliminary concept considered a rover with two inflatable wheels that would enter —or drop into— the lava tube while deploying miniature communication relay devices along the traverse. Other concepts suggested developing a miniature rover without wheels but able to "hop" along.

Asagumo

The Asagumo rover weighs 1.3 kg and, instead of wheels, is equipped with four legs to walk the Moon's surface to collect the data from Lidar and other equipment. The robot will eventually be able to explore the "Lunar lava tubes". The rover will be landed on the Moon as early as July 2021.[8]

Hakuto-R

Ispace and Draper are making a rover for Commercial Lunar Payload Services led by NASA called Hakuto-R. It will be launched in 2023.

Spacebit Mission Two

Spacebit Mission Two will be launched in 2021 on Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander. It has one weeled rover and four Asagumo rovers. It will be made by Spacebit.

Rashid Lunar Rover

The United Arab Emirates has launched the Emirates Lunar Mission which plans to send a 100% Emirati-made lunar rover, the Rashid Lunar Rover, planned to reach the Moon in 2024. This will be the first lunar mission from the Arab world.[9]

Proposed missions

ATHLETE

The ATHLETE rover in a test facility at JPL. Taken August, 2008.

NASA's plans for future Moon missions call for rovers that have a far longer range than the Apollo rovers.[10] The All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) is a six-legged robotic lunar rover test-bed under development by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). ATHLETE is a testbed for systems and is designed for use on the Moon.[11] The system is in development along with NASA's Johnson and Ames Centers, Stanford University and Boeing.[12] ATHLETE is designed, for maximum efficiency, to be able to both roll and walk over a wide range of terrains.[11]

Deep Space Systems

On 29 November 2018, Deep Space Systems was included in the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS) by NASA, which makes it eligible to bid on delivering science and technology payloads to the Moon, worth $2.6 billion in contracts over 10 years. DSS is now considered a "main contractor" for NASA's CLPS program, and DSS can sub-contract projects to other companies of their choice. According to NASA, Deep Space Systems will be proposing a small commercial lunar rover, to carry science payloads, in addition of their design and development services to the program.

HERACLES

HERACLES is a Sample Return by ESA, JAXA & CSA. The rover is made by CSA. It is proposed to be launched in 2028.

Luna-Grunt rover

Luna-Grunt rover (or Luna-28) is a proposed Russian lunar rover (lunokhod).

Lunar Polar Exploration Mission rover

The Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX) is a robotic lunar mission concept by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that would send a lunar rover and lander to explore the south pole region of the Moon in 2024. JAXA is likely to provide the under-development H3 launch vehicle and the rover, while ISRO would be responsible for the lander.

Planetoid Mines

Planetoid Mines will be launched in 2023. It will be for lunar mining in South Pole and PSR craters.

Scarab

Scarab is a new generation lunar rover designed to assist astronauts, take rock and mineral samples, and explore the lunar surface.[13][14] It is being developed by the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, supported by NASA.

Space Exploration Vehicle

The SEV is a proposed successor to the original Lunar Roving Vehicle from the Apollo missions. It combines a living module, as it has a pressurized cabin containing a small bathroom and space for 2 astronauts (4 in case of emergency), and a small truck.

Canceled

Lunokhod 3

Lunokhod 3 was built for a Moon landing in 1977 as Luna 25 but never flew to the Moon due to lack of launchers and funding. It remains at the NPO Lavochkin museum

Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle 4, 5 and 6

They would have been for Apollo 18, 19 and 20.

Resource Prospector

Resource Prospector is a cancelled mission concept by NASA of a rover that would have performed a survey expedition on a polar region of the Moon. The rover was to attempt to detect and map the location of volatiles such as hydrogen, oxygen and lunar water which could foster more affordable and sustainable human exploration to the Moon, Mars, and other Solar System bodies The mission concept was still in its pre-formulation stage when it was scrapped in April 2018. The Resource Prospector mission was proposed to be launched in 2022. Its science instruments will be flown on several commercial lander missions contracted with NASA's new Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

See also

• CubeRover, a class of modular lunar rovers
• Exploration of the Moon
• Tank on the Moon, 2007 documentary film
• List of rovers on extraterrestrial bodies

References

1. Chang’e 3: The Chinese Rover Mission
2. Ramzy, Austin (26 November 2013). "China to Send 'Jade Rabbit' Rover to the Moon". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
3. "ISRO to send first Indian into Space by 2022 as announced by PM, says Dr Jitendra Singh". pib.nic.in. Retrieved 2018-08-29.
4. Nair, Avinash (31 May 2015). "ISRO to deliver "eyes and ears" of Chandrayaan-2 by 2015-end". The Indian Express. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
5. Z-01 Lander. Gunter Dirk Krebs, Gunter's Space Page. Accessed on 17 June 2019.
6. OrbitBeyond - Z-01 Accessed on 17 June 2019.
7. Loff, Sarah (2019-10-23). "New VIPER Lunar Rover to Map Water Ice on the Moon". NASA. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
8. October 2019, Mike Wall 12. "UK's 1st Moon Rover to Launch in 2021". Space.com. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
9. https://www.gulftoday.ae/news/2020/09/29/uae-starts-lunar-mission-project-names-rover-as-rashid
10. NASA's Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV)
11. "The ATHLETE Rover". JPL. 2010-02-25. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-01-28.
12. "The ATHLETE Rover". NASA. 2010-02-25.
13. "NASA Day on the Hill". NASA.
14. "Snakes, Rovers and Googly Eyes: New Robot Masters Take Many Forms". Wired. 2008-04-04.

External links

• NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: High definition video of Apollo 16 Lunar Rover (29 January 2013)