Description: The Tethered Power Systems for Lunar Mobility and Power Transmission (TYMPO) Project will develop a novel tether-based power transmission system to provide power over several meters to several kilometers to serve remote loads. The designed end-to-end tether power system will efficiently (> 90 %) deliver power (100 W – 10 kW) and communications across long (< 10 km) tethers to enable high-power transmission capabilities for fission or solar surface generation systems and provide rover access to extreme terrain, such as lunar craters, pits, caves, and lava tubes. TYMPO is an end-to-end tether and electronics system, which provides tethered robotics missions with power, communications, and tensile support. The system is fully modular, allowing end users to scale power converters and tether to support their power needs and offers two communication platforms. TYMPO provides two communications platforms. The primary system is a fiber optic link, which provides a 1 Gb/s ethernet link, supporting high data rates from Lidar, video, and other payload systems. The secondary system is a power line carrier link, which only provides 10 Mb/s at 1 km, but can tolerate knife edge bends and other extreme terrain. Project Objectives include: Define and document tether power and communications system requirements, including power conversion systems, communications system, a 1 km tether, and spooling system.Develop, build, and perform laboratory testing on a complete breadboard TYMPO system, including assessment of viability of meeting system requirements.Develop, build, and perform laboratory testing on a complete prototype TYMPO system, including verification and validation of hardware performance against system requirements.Develop, build, and perform laboratory testing on a complete engineering model TYMPO system, including verification and validation of hardware performance against system requirements.Perform an end-to-end field test of a deployed 1 km, 1 kW engineering model TYMPO system, demonstrating capability of power and communications over long distance in a field setting.Perform scalability analysis, demonstrating capabilities of TYMPO to perform at distances above 1 km for a variety of Lunar missions.

Benefits: Tether power systems provide unique solutions for power transmission to remote human or robotic exploration loads on the lunar surface. Several of the benefits include: no line of sight needed, efficient power conversion and transmission, descent support for rovers requiring extreme feature access, and combined communications and power transmission. Utilizing Galllium Nitride High Electron Mobility Transistor (GaN HEMT) devices and multilevel converters, TYMPO will achieve the high voltage transmission levels necessary for efficient power transfer, while simultaneously achieving improvements in power density (>2W/cm3) and specific power (>1kW/kg). The combined system may be used for transmission of power to future Artemis missions, CLPS landers, or robotic explorers on the Lunar surface. TYMPO also has vast applicability throughout the solar system, including Mars, Enceladus, Europa, and other planetary bodies of exploration interest. TYMPO will develop an integrated tether system including packaging, interface documentation, and qualification testing to enble integration into any upcoming Lunar or solar system planetary missions. Planned follow on efforts include inclusion in future Lunar applications of the Fission Surface Power (FSP) system for Artemis, CLPS commercial rover applications, and robotic mission concepts for the Lunar surface such as Axel and other planetary bodies such as EELS. TYMPO additionally provides enabling technologies that will allow future tether-based systems to utilize demonstrated technologies in their mission proposals.