-
Surface exploration of small solar system bodies:challenges and
prospects
Marco Pavone
Autonomous Systems Laboratory
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Stanford University
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.stanford.edu/~pavone/index.html
July 4, 2013
Galaxy Forum USA 2013
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
1
[email protected]://www.stanford.edu/~pavone/index.html
-
Space rovers
How would you change the design for low gravity
environments?
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
2
-
Space rovers
How would you change the design for low gravity
environments?
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
2
-
Small bodies
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
3
-
Small bodies exploration so far
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
4
-
Future: its all about close proximity observations...
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
5
-
...and sampling...
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
6
-
...in risky areas...
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
7
-
...and very specific regions...
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
8
-
...at multiple sites
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
9
-
Concepts for in-situ exploration: static platforms
Philae lander
Payload of ESAs Rosettaspacecraft (2014)
Designed to land on Comet67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Comet hopper
Mission to comet46P/Wirtanen
Preselected for a NASADiscovery-class mission in 2011
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
10
-
Concepts for in situ exploration: mobile platforms
Wheeled rovers: Nanorover
Designed by NASA-JPL forHayabusa mission (2000)
Project cancelled
Spring-actuated hoppers: PROP-F
Payload for Phobos 2 Sovietmission (1988)
Mission failed JPL also developed three
generations of spring-actuatedhoppers
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
11
-
Concepts for in situ exploration: mobile platforms
Internally-actuated hoppers:MINERVA
Payload of JAXAs Hayabusamission (2003)
Deployment failed
Internally-actuated hoppers:MASCOT
Payload of JAXAs Hayabusa 2 Developed by DLR To be launched in
2014
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
12
-
Spacecraft/rover hybrids for small bodies exploration
Develop a mission architecture that allows the systematic
andaffordable in-situ exploration of small Solar System bodies
Key idea: minimalistic, internally-actuated mobile robotic
platforms
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
13
Joint work with R. Allen (Stanford), J. Castillo (JPL), J. Lang
(JPL), I. Nesnas (JPL), N. Strange(JPL), and J. Hoffman
(MIT).Funded by 2011 NASA NIAC program.
-
Robotic platform
Key philosophy: Exploit low gravity, rather than facing it as a
constraint
Minimalistic platform specifically designed for
microgravity:Systematic exploration (all access mobility,
versatility and scalability)3 mobility options: 1) tumbling, 2)
hopping, 3) pseudo-orbital flight
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
14
-
Basic concept
Basic concept: Swapping angular momentum
H = Iplatform platform +3
i=1
Iflywheel,i flywheel,i
Reaction torque
Rotating flywheel
Robot enclosure
Attitude-controlled hop
Torque generated by flywheel
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
15
momentum.movMedia File (video/quicktime)
-
Prototypes and test beds
Prototypes:
Motor Controller
Motor & Encoder
Brake
Flywheel
Processor
Can Adapter
Batteries
DC/DC Converter
Test beds:
Spinning mass Air-bearing platform
Tilted table
Emulated gravity
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
16
-
Reference mission to Phobos
Main questions:
1 What is the origin of Phobos materials?
Phobos comes from Mars?Phobos is a captured asteroid?
2 Water and organics at Phobos?
Blue spectral unit water-rich?Putative phyllosilicates
associated withorganics?
3 What is the structure of Phobos soil?
Degree of maturation of the regolith?
4 What is the nature of the surfacedynamics?
Degree of mobility of the soil?
Dark dust
Phobos bulk material?
Image small crater structure
Ejecta from impactor?
Search for block ejecta
?
Fine-Scale Sampling of Phobos Surface Diversity
5Km
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
17
-
Mission operations
1 Initial reconnaissance of object
2 Deployment of hybrid
3 Initial free roaming by hybrid4 Command and execute guided
rolling/hopping trajectories via
synergistic mission operationshybrid relies on the mothership
for localization/trajectory planning
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
18
HandBrake 0.9.8 2012071700
architecture.mp4Media File (video/mp4)
-
Conclusion
Robotic exploration of small bodieswill be one of the main NASA
objectives in the years to comerequires disruptively new mobility
concepts ad hoc for low gravityenvironments
Spacecraft/rover hybrids:new paradigm for in-situ exploration of
small bodiestechnology to obtain new science at an affordable
costproof of concept successfully demonstrated
Contact: [email protected]:
http://www.stanford.edu/~pavone/index.html
M. Pavone, Stanford Aero/Astro In-situ small bodies exploration
19
[email protected]://www.stanford.edu/~pavone/index.html