ATHLETE (robot)
Encyclopedia
Lunar rover
The Lunar Roving Vehicle or lunar rover was a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program during 1971 and 1972...
test-bed under development by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...
(JPL). ATHLETE is a testbed for systems and is designed for use on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
.
The system is in development along with NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Johnson and Ames Centers, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
.
ATHLETE is designed, for maximum efficiency, to be able to both roll and walk over a wide range of terrains.
Systems
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Degrees of freedom (engineering)
In mechanics, degrees of freedom are the set of independent displacements and/or rotations that specify completely the displaced or deformed position and orientation of the body or system...
for generalized robotic manipulation. Each ATHLETE is intended to have a payload capacity of 450 kilograms (992.1 lb), with the capability of docking multiple ATHLETE vehicles together to support larger loads.
The ATHLETE is much larger than robotic systems previously used and has a diameter of around 4 metres (13.1 ft) and a reach of around 6 metres (19.7 ft). Even with this larger size the project has allowed the facility for multiple units to be stowed and docked compactly for launch into an annular ring. This would mean that many vehicles can be efficiently stacked around a main payload on a single lander.
The 6 DOF
Six degrees of freedom
Six degrees of freedom refers to motion of a rigid body in three-dimensional space, namely the ability to move forward/backward, up/down, left/right combined with rotation about three perpendicular axes...
legs allow more capabilities than other robotic systems such as Sojourner or the Mars Exploration Rover
Mars Exploration Rover
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission is an ongoing robotic space mission involving two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars...
s. These mean that the slopes it could climb would be up to 35° on solid surfaces and 25° on soft surfaces, such as the soft deposits of dust found on the Moon. Plans are to develop the system's capability of travel over rougher terrain and to increase the speed of ATHLETE to 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) per hour, 100 times faster than the Spirit
Spirit rover
Spirit, MER-A , is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity , landed on the other side of the planet...
and Opportunity
Opportunity rover
Opportunity, MER-B , is a robotic rover on the planet Mars, active since 2004. It is the remaining rover in NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission...
rovers.
Future improvements
Planning for the future of the ATHLETE include the ability to scale difficult obstacles by means of employing a launchable/releasable grappling hookGrappling hook
A grappling hook is an anchor with multiple hooks , attached to a rope; it is thrown, dropped, sunk, projected, or fastened directly by hand to where at least one hook may catch and hold. Generally, grappling hooks are used to temporarily secure one end of a rope. They may also be used to dredge...
and line which it will use to haul itself up even vertical slopes. There are also plans to introduce provisions for voice and gesture commands from suited astronauts in proximity to the ATHLETE, the ability to self deploy from their storage facilities and the capability for "autonomous footfall placement". Work was also done to adapt the Tweel
Tweel
The Tweel is an experimental tire design developed by the French tire company Michelin. The tire uses no air, and therefore cannot burst or become flat...
technology for use with the rover.
Goals
JPL are aiming for a 10 year life span and the capability for re-usable delivery vehiclesSpace logistics
According to the AIAA Space Logistics Technical Committee, space logistics isHowever, this definition in its larger sense includes terrestrial logistics in support of space travel, including any additional "design and development, acquisition, storage, movement, distribution, maintenance,...
would mean that the goal of "an affordable lunar-surface flight experiment that demonstrates this technology on the Moon and subsequently uses it as part of the Human Lunar Return campaign to perform the needed robotic/human vehicle functions on the lunar surface."
ATHLETE's purpose is to support lunar exploration
Exploration of the Moon
The physical exploration of the Moon began when Luna 2, a space probe launched by the Soviet Union, made an impact on the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959. Prior to that the only available means of exploration had been observation. The invention of the optical telescope brought about the...
operations. One hypothetical mission scenario features a mobile manned "base" supported by ATHLETEs capable of traversing thousands of kilometers and setting down temporarily to study interesting features along the way.