Duration: 6 months
Traditional planetary exploration missions utilise a single rover platform with wheeled locomotion that can traverse moderately uneven terrain. More extreme rocky surfaces are challenging, and the risk to mission success of the lone rover becoming lodged or toppling is prohibitively high. To address this we propose a network of low cost, low mass agile hopping rovers that can vault and bounce in complex terrain. Each rover would have the capacity to operate independently while also communicating with nearby rovers to share navigation and mapping data, utilising a range of complementary sensing packages, which could be deployed across the rover network. The agile hopping design of the rover platform will enable navigation of complex terrain while the multi rover network will support a wider exploration range, which will directly address Themes 2 & 3. The design will also consider integration of technologies, which will support descent into lunar pits and cave systems and the powering and operation of the rovers within these systems (Themes 1 and 4). Additionally the design will consider integration of suitable sensor packages to address key scientific objectives (Theme 5).
