MOTIV SPACE SYSTEMS, INC. — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: Z5

Description

Motiv Space Systems and its partner, TRACLabs, propose a novel rover architecture to enable a new and expanding architecture of Lunar exploration and resource utilization.nbsp; The proposed Fast Advanced Scout Terrain Rover (FASTR) is a rover mobility architecture designed to 1) to carry, deliver, and/or deploy ISRU and science payloads; 2) detect regolith entrapment and perform escape routines; 3) perform obstacle avoidance and autonomous navigation in unprepared terrain; 4) perform autonomous navigation and human-in-the-loop teleoperation; 5) exhibit traverse speeds in excess of 1m/s in terrain representative of the Lunar environment; 6) generate 3D maps of its navigated terrain for both localization and prospecting purposes; 7) possess an open architecture software development environment for adoption and use by a wide range of entities; and 8) have demonstrated a novel mobility architecture for use on lunar applications with a path to flight.nbsp; Current rover technologies require significant human-in-the-loop path planning and intervention, are very slow averaging lt;1cm/s in typical traverse speeds and are very expensive due to the nature of their custom development cycles.nbsp; FASTR aims to advance the state of the art.nbsp; The FASTR architecture will enable broad and rapid exploration of lunar regions of interest through autonomous navigation and an increase in traverse speed by two orders of magnitude from current Mars Rovers. FASTR will be capable of deploying a wide array of science/ISRU payloads to prospect, characterize, and collect volatiles of interest.nbsp; Through its open architecture design, FASTR will empower faster mission development cycles and increase the pace of rover enhanced missions.nbsp; FASTR minimizes the need for human intervention through on-board entrapment detection and escapement.