An astronaut orbiting Earth in the International Space Station has remotely directed a NASA rover in California to unfurl an 鈥渁ntenna film鈥� that scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder are developing for use on the unexplored far side of the moon.
When astronaut Chris Cassidy used a Space Station computer to pilot the robot across a mock lunar surface at NASA鈥檚 Ames Research Center on June 17, he demonstrated for the first time that an astronaut in an orbiting spacecraft could successfully control a robot in real time on a planetary surface. The technique could have future applications for humans visiting Mars, an asteroid or the moon.
Jack Burns, director of 抖阴旅行射-Boulder鈥檚 Lunar University Network for Astrophysics Research, or LUNAR, hopes it will not be long before the latter happens. Burns has long advocated for placing a radio telescope on the far side of the moon that would be able to pick up 鈥渇aint whispers鈥� from distant regions of space that would tell the tale of a time when the universe was quite young 鈥� 100 million years after the Big Bang 鈥� and the first stars and galaxies were being born.
鈥淚t would open up a time period in the universe that we are not able to explore with any other technique or technology,鈥� said Burns, also a professor in 抖阴旅行射-Boulder鈥檚 Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences. 鈥淭his would be an absolutely unique telescope that will allow us to address fundamental questions about the very early universe.鈥�
Placing the radio telescope on the far side of the moon is critical because it would shield the receivers from the radio cacophony emanating from Earth and it would raise the telescope above Earth鈥檚 charged ionosphere, which can distort and refract incoming radio signals from space.
With the development of NASA鈥檚 Orion spacecraft, it will soon be feasible to send astronauts to a location 60,000 kilometers above the far side of the moon known as the L2 Earth-moon Lagrange point. At that spot, the combined gravity of the Earth and the moon would allow for the spacecraft to easily maintain a stationary orbit. From there, Burns and his colleagues believe a rover could be sent to the moon鈥檚 surface and manipulated to roll out a 鈥淜apton film鈥� that would contain the radio antennas.
To test their idea, the 抖阴旅行射-Boulder researchers, including graduate student Laura Kruger, partnered with NASA鈥檚 Human Exploration Telerobotics project, which was already working on the technology that would allow robots on a planetary surface to be controlled from orbit. NASA agreed to use Burns鈥� vision as a test scenario. June鈥檚 successful trial, during which Cassidy piloted a K10 robot for three hours in an area the size of two football fields, is the first of three planned this summer.
The K10 robot is a four-wheel-drive rover that stands about 4-and-a-half-feet tall, weighs about 220 pounds and can travel about 3 feet per second 鈥� a little slower than the average person鈥檚 walking pace. For the Surface Telerobotics tests, K10 is equipped with multiple cameras and a 3D scanning laser system to perform survey work, as well as a mechanism to deploy the simulated radio antenna.
鈥淒uring future missions beyond low-Earth orbit, some work will not be feasible for humans to do manually,鈥� said Terry Fong, director of NASA鈥檚 Intelligent Robotics Group. 鈥淩obots will complement human explorers, allowing astronauts to perform work via remote control from a space station, spacecraft or other habitat.鈥�
Burns hopes that the success of NASA鈥檚 Surface Telerobotics test will help bolster the far side of the moon telescope project and generate interest in exploring a mysterious region of our nearest celestial neighbor.
鈥淭he land area at the far side of the moon is twice as large as the United States; it鈥檚 a big piece of property,鈥� Burns said. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 set foot there, either robotically or with humans, and it鈥檚 right in our backyard 鈥� just three days away.鈥�
Contact:
Jack Burns, 303-735-0963
Jack.Burns@colorado.edu
Jim Scott, 抖阴旅行射 media relations, 303-492-3114
Jim.Scott@colorado.edu
Laura Snider, 抖阴旅行射 media relations, 303-735-0528
Laura.Snider@colorado.edu
The K10 rover on NASA's Roverscape in California. The robot has just been manipulated by an astronaut in space to roll out an antenna film that 抖阴旅行射-Boulder researchers would like to deploy on the far side of the moon. Photo courtesy Jack Burns.
