Description: Space Policy Directive 1 directs NASA to return to the Moon. Artemis is America’s flagship program to support this endeavor and could deliver the first woman and the next man to the lunar surface as soon as 2025. In preparation for a human return as well as directly support crewed operations, robotic platforms are necessary to learn more about the lunar environment, identify where resources are located, and determine how to extract them. Robotic systems are also needed to supplement crew capabilities on the surface, offload hazardous activities from crews, and reduce astronaut time spent on non-mission critical activities. Creating systems that can survive multiple lunar days and traverse several kilometers is necessary to enable these kinds of groundbreaking missions and increase asset return on investment, however, such systems must be proven to survive and thrive in the incredibly challenging lunar environment before they can be relied upon. To address these challenges, Astrobotic proposes the development of four technological innovations: (1) the first commercial mobility as a service demonstration on the Moon, (2) an ultra-compact, lightweight radioisotope heater (RHU) to enable night survival of rovers on the lunar surface; (3) a long-range software-defined radio (SDR) for rover-to-orbital asset communication to enable long-distance lunar surface communication, (4) and the first lunar in-situ mobility testing to characterize the surface and inform trafficability of lightweight lunar robots. These technologies will be developed, tested, integrated onto Astrobotic’s CubeRover platform, and demonstrated on the lunar surface on Astrobotic’s next polar lander mission in this project. This project will advance a lunar night-survival and long-range CubeRover model from a TRL of 4 to a TRL of 9, thereby lowering risk and facilitating business opportunities for commercial companies and NASA to leverage these new technologies for future missions.

Benefits: The proposed work directly addresses the solicitation request for Technical Need Area 3: Robotics and Autonomy for Lunar Sustainability and Infrastructure. The CubeRover is an essential element that supports a scalable and sustainable commercial lunar architecture for in-situ resource utilization, autonomous surface site preparation and excavation, and assembly, maintenance, and repair services in support of lunar surface operations.

Combining the mobility as a service that CubeRovers offer with multi-day and long-distance communications packages provides tremendous value to international space agencies, US government agencies, and commercial customers. Astrobotic is in discussions with these organizations to carry science payloads, send dense 4K data products from the Moon to Earth, and test complex autonomous solutions.