Scholarly record

ALTERNATIVE SURFACE EXPLORATION OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL BODIES - THE TRACKED #COSMOBOSS MICROROVER

Jakub Zalewski, Aleksander Roratowski, Przemyslaw Toczek, Krzysztof Skrzypaszek

Abstract

The first unmanned rover landed on the lunar surface in November 1970. Since then, more than a dozen vehicles of this class have operated on the Moon and other celestial bodies, yet none of them has been equipped with a tracked (continuous-belt) suspension, chiefly because of its mass, which significantly increases launch cost. In parallel, scientific instrumentation continues to be miniaturised, as exemplified by the growing adoption of CubeSat-class platforms. This paper presents the prototype of the #COSMOBOSS microrover: a remotely operated vehicle with a footprint not exceeding 20x20x30 cm, mounted on tracks and equipped with an array of magnetic sensors. The concept assumes the construction of an integrated hardware-research platform in which the rover gathers data on its surroundings in real time, while onboard software continuously generates a terrain map overlaid with anomalies indicating local accumulations of ferromagnetic material. The tracked suspension, despite its higher self-mass, is critical for the upcoming project stages: uniform pressure distribution reduces the risk of the vehicle becoming embedded in regolith, while the additional mass markedly improves the operating conditions of future drilling modules under microgravity, particularly when attempting boreholes deeper than 1-2 m, the practical limit reached by the Apollo Lunar Surface Drill during the Apollo 15 mission. The rover's locomotion capabilities and the integration of the magnetic sensors were verified experimentally on lunar regolith analogues. The results obtained serve as a starting point for designing further research modules within the #COSMOBOSS platform.

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