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Active Moon explorers discussed sustainable lunar operations at the 2024 International Astronautical Congress.
Illustration of the ‘Moon Racer’ LTV. (Image Credit: Intuitive Machines).
New Delhi: In the era of commercial operations on the lunar surface, it is no longer about a single mission, or even a campaign. All the major spacefaring nations are planning to dispatch a series of landers to the Moon. Water ice may be present in the permanently shadowed craters around the south pole of the Moon, which is the target for the Moon Landers. Space agencies around the world are planning the infrastructure necessary for sustained, long-term lunar activities, including power grids, relay satellites, and even lunar railways. Developing interoperable hardware will allow space agencies to pool resources and reduce costs of missions.
Astrobotic intends to set up a power distribution network on the Moon, the Lunagrid, to deliver the energy requirements to surface assets. (Image Credit: Astrobotic).
At the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, Astrobotic’s Dan Hendrickson, Tim Crain from Intuitive Machines, JAXA’s Masaki Fujimoto and P Veeramuthuvel from ISRO discussed sustainable and sustained lunar exploration on a panel hosted by NASA’s AC Charania. Some of ISRO’s future plans for lunar exploration were revealed by Veeramuthuvel, beyond the planned crew landing “We should have our own architecture, or a joint venture so that there will be a shuttle between the Earth to the Moon, as well as from the Moon to the Surface, we should have another re-shuttle, for which new technologies are required for cargo as well as crew transfer.”
Lunar rovers and trailers
NASA is planning to deploy the Gateway, a cislunar platform for providing access to the lunar surface. Till such a space station is assembled, the lunar missions will have to use the delivered hardware and packages over multiple missions, which need to be carefully planned. Crain said, “We have begun working on our Lunar Terrain Vehicle, which has a trailer attachment. So we have one LTV, but what if it had many trailers with different power, communication, science packages, on different trailers that are delivered at different times?”
Concept illustration of the ‘Lunar Cruiser’ pressurised vehicle. (Image Credit: Toyota).
Fujimoto advocated a synergy between elements, “How do you define the constellation, the variety of landers or rovers, that will enable more and more people to join and play a meaningful role in the exploration of the Moon? When I wear my space agency hat, I will talk about the big, pressurised rover, but at my institute, with my colleagues, I talk about how to make a smaller mission even more smaller. How do you make each size mission play a meaningful role while humanity explores the Moon?”
Hopper Drones
Researchers from Arizona State University are collaborating with Intuitive Machines to develop Micro-Nova hopper drones, that are extreme mobility vehicles capable of exploring the permanently shadowed craters. They can transport arbitrary packages between two points on the lunar surface, or be loaded with active payloads themselves. The drone is a cube measuring 76.2 centimetres on each side, to fly a one kilogram payload over a distance of 2.5 kilometres.
A rendering of an Intuitive Machines lander deploying a Micro-Nova hopper drone. (Image Credit: Intuitive Machines).
Crain said, “The Micro-Nova hopper that we are flying on IM-2 was sized to provide eight kilograms of payload 25 kilometres at range. However, that is a propulsion-sizing activity. As we get to specific customers, we can upsize or downsize the tank and begin considering refuelling technology. Customising that (hopper) as an astronaut’s assistant, a survey drone, or a very low altitude science platform is something we can specialise into once we demonstrate the core technology.”
Illustration of the Lunar Dawn LTV. (Image Credit: Lunar Outpost).
There are permanently shadowed craters in the highlands surrounding Shackleton crater at the south pole of the Moon. There could be water ice at the surface or close to the surface in the depths of these craters, where temperatures are cold enough for ice to be stable despite the lack of an atmosphere. This is why all the major spacefaring nations in the world are headed to the south pole of the Moon.
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