Support Infrastructure for Autonomous Exploration and Development of Off-World Surface Environment

Abstract

NASA’s Artemis program reignited interest in lunar exploration and development, with multiple governments and private companies developing technologies for the Moon. These projects entail building habitations on the Moon that will be occupied in the long-term. The experience and technology gained while exploring the Moon are expected to be a stepping- stone for the of Mars as well. Due to the inherent difficulties of crewed spaceflight, groups of multiple robots may be used. However, the extreme environments and the lack of support infrastructure presents challenges, such as the extended periods of darkness on the Moon, and the lack of communications infrastructure on other planets, for operating autonomous systems on the surface of other celestial bodies. This thesis aims to put forward potential solutions to address these challenges. First, this thesis extends the University of Arizona’s Space-TREx laboratory’s previous work on lunar bases by proposing the concept of a Mobile Controlled Environment (MCE), where the environmental conditions are standardized to reduce the cost and complexity of assets operating within it. This thesis also developed analysis and design software for MCEs that can simulate the effects of setting up MCEs and visualize them. Next, as a means of setting up MCEs, this thesis proposes erecting multifunctional and modular towers for providing services, such as illumination, communication, and navigation on other celestial bodies. Finally, this thesis chose to go deeper into detail in combining the towers’ illumination and navigation services by developing a neural network-based method for the localization of robotic assets on the surface of other planetary bodies. The MCE analysis software has been successfully used to refine previous work on designing illumination systems on the Moon. Hardware experiments have tested the performance of the neural network-based localization system in a scaled-down lunar landscape. This thesis predicts that the MCE framework, incorporating surface-based support assets such as towers, will enable the activity of autonomous systems in extreme environments.