Earth-Analogue Roving System Development and Testing for Lunar Surface Exploration

Simplify, and add lightness. From Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to Colin Chapman, this mantra has direct application to improving astronaut experiences on the moon. Simplify the EVA experience and reduce on-suit mass to create a lighter system. Enabling lunar endeavors to travel greater distances, at a faster rate, with a greater payload all while reducing required effort is a substantial component in best enabling the greatest exploratory opportunity in the last fifty years - the Artemis mission series. Solving this engineering challenge begins on the ground, and through NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) division the University of Maryland’s Space Systems Laboratory is investigating a system titled "The BioBot Concept" consisting of a highly-mobile roving vehicle, life support system offloading via an umbilical-tending robotic arm, and a lighter, customizable-duration, on-suit life support system. The translation of a roving vehicle concept designed for lunar conditions to an Earth-analogue vehicle with equivalent capabilities in slope climbing, wheel articulation, and payload capacity underneath a university-level budget and a low barrier for entry among students of various experience has been a significant challenge with rewarding results. This paper provides an overview of progress to date on the to-date design, assembly, subsystem, and integrated testing of this multi-part lunar roving concept development.

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