NASA Moon Bots In The Arctic

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Haughton Crater

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Nasa is currently field testing two new robots for lunar exploration.  "Big news!  We have two on Mars!" you might think, but these two new bots are special -  they will be used to help prospect a future site for moon colonization.

BY 2020, NASA plans on having astronauts back on the moon setting up a lunar outpost, and looking for cheese.  However, they must first scout out the landscape for mineral deposits, water, and other topographical details that would be most suitable to set up home-sweet-home.

As of July 10, the two robots and a number of scientists were busy in Haughton Crater, Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic performing trial runs.  This crater was chosen not only for its harsh polar environment, but  also because it is similar in size to the Shackelton Crater on the south pole of the moon, a crater suspected to have ice hiding amongst its shadows. [source]

The mission hopes to perform a number of tasks, most notably to have two robots simultaneously and autonomously survey a 700x700km site, line by line, while the team of scientists analyzes the live data streams from a mock base camp.  Furthermore, they will be testing new hardware and software for collecting and analyzing data collected in the crater

• Ground penetrating Radar - to detect the underlying ground features, including ice and water surveying
• 3D Survey Lidar - with millimeter accuracy, this number will produce an accurate topographic map up to a few hundreds of meters away.
• Stereo Cameras - to provide a simple estimate of the environment
• 2D Laser Scanner - in essence, an electronic bumper
• Digital Compass, Sun tracker, GPS, Wheel and Steering encoders - to get where it needs to go