Concordia University|Université Concordia

Purpose

The terrains of the Moon and Mars consist of fine granular regolith with embedded rocks. During the Apollo 15 mission, the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle became stuck in such soil, and had to be freed manually by astronauts. Mars rovers have also suffered mobility challenges including entrapment in soft soil. There had been very limited experimental mobility data collected in reduced gravity to study this problem. Understanding the nature of interactions with granular terrains is thus crucial to exploring these high priority destinations. The purpose of this project is to study Lunar rover mobility on regolith (loose soil) in reduced gravity. The main objectives are developing guidelines for using on-Earth testing in 1-g, along with modeling and simulation, to predict mobility performance in the Lunar environment. All aspects of this research, from the reduced-gravity testing to the validation of on-Earth testing and models, position Canada at the cutting-edge of planetary rover research and maintain its global position of leadership in space robotics. Students involved inspire the next generation of Canadians to reach for the stars. The methods developed can be applied to the design of the upcoming Canadian Lunar Rover, as well as any of the other upcoming Lunar or planetary rovers being developed by Canada’s partners around the world.