[meteorite-list] NASA Robots Practice Moon Survey in the Arctic Circle

[Ron Baalke]

July 20, 2007

Beth Dickey/Melissa Mathews
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2087/1272
beth.dickey-1 at nasa.gov, melissa.mathews-1 at nasa.gov 

John Bluck
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-5026/9000
john.g.bluck at nasa.gov

RELEASE: 07-163

NASA ROBOTS PRACTICE MOON SURVEY IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- Two NASA robots are surveying a rocky, 
isolated polar desert within a crater in the Arctic Circle. The study 
will help scientists learn how robots could evaluate potential 
outposts on the moon or Mars.

The robots, K10 Black and K10 Red, carry 3-D laser scanners and 
ground-penetrating radar. The team arrived at Haughton Crater at 
Devon Island, Canada, on July 12 and will operate the machines until 
July 31. Scientists chose the polar region because of the extreme 
environmental conditions, lack of infrastructure and resources, and 
geologic features. Additionally, Haughton Crater is geographically 
similar to Shackleton Crater at the South Pole of the moon. Both are 
impact craters that measure roughly 12.4 miles in diameter.

"We are learning about the awesome potential of human and robot 
teams," said S. Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center 
in Moffett Field, Calif., where the group conducting the survey is 
based. "Studying how humans and robots can maximize scientific 
returns in sites such as Devon Island will prepare us to walk on the 
moon and Mars."

NASA is planning to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020. Prior to 
establishing a lunar outpost, the agency must conduct detailed 
surveys at a variety of locations to produce maps, look for minerals 
and water, and learn other details. NASA plans to accomplish its 
surveys with an automated orbiting spacecraft, not a robotic lander, 
but the agency still has a keen interest in advancing the laser 
scanning technology.

Most of the lunar sites are on harsh terrain and in permanently 
shadowed areas. It is not unusual for site surveys to require 
thousands of measurements and hundreds of hours to complete. A robot 
can reduce mission cost and improve mission effectiveness by allowing 
ground control to conduct surveying tasks.

"A typical scenario involves multiple rovers autonomously surveying a 
region while humans supervise and assess data from a remote 
location," said Terry Fong, director of the Intelligent Robots Group 
at Ames.

The robots are using different techniques than the goal-directed 
traverses and isolated sampling tasks that Mars scientific rovers 
have used to explore the Red Planet. K10 Black and K10 Red are using 
a mix of information previously obtained by aerial and satellite 
imaging and data that the robot survey team is gathering.

The 3-D laser scanner can map topographic features as far as 3,280 
feet away. The ground-penetrating radar, which NASA's Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., developed, can map below ground as 
deep as 16.4 feet.

"The robots are covering the area in lawnmower-like paths at human 
walking speeds to systematically map above and below ground," said 
Fong. 

The practice survey in Haughton Crater is taking place at an area 
called Drill Hill. The robots are covering approximately 120 acres of 
terrain. Researchers are commanding the robots remotely from the 
Haughton-Mars base camp more than two miles away from Drill Hill. 

The robots navigate using the Global Positioning System, stereo 
cameras, laser scanners and sun trackers. Each of the 
four-wheel-drive machines weighs 165 pounds and can carry a payload 
up to 110 pounds.

A key objective of the Drill Hill survey is to test the instruments 
and software on the robots as well as the equipment and software that 
humans will use at lunar outposts and ground control to supervise the 
robots. Engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will 
assess advanced robot driving techniques using a multi-screen 
cockpit. Ames will test software that makes high-resolution maps for 
interactive display in 3-D.

NASA's Exploration Technology Development Program sponsors the robotic 
site survey at Haughton Crater.

For more information, including an updated blog, visit:

http://haughton2007.arc.nasa.gov

	
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