We’ve all been laser-focused on Mars as a site for future human sites, but let’s not forget about the Moon. It only has a little less space than Mars right now, and it does lot closer. Thanks to radiation and temperature change, however, it may be the safest place for a long-term human presence on the Moon underground. We don’t know much about the lunar underground environment, but the same was true of the lunar surface in the past. To study the unprecedented depths, the European Space Agency is evaluating a spherical robot pressed with spinning cameras.
The robot is called DAEDALUS (Descent And Exploration in Deep Autonomy of Lunar Underground Structures), and was designed by a team from Julius-Maximilians-Universität of Germany de Würzburg (JMU). DAEDALUS is currently a design study under consideration by the ESA, but the team has built some basic hardware of testing (see above).
We don’t know what the environment will look like in lunar caves and lava tubes, so DAEDALUS has a common design for better flexibility. As seen by the JMU team, DAEDALUS will be a 46-centimeter visible area with a cable tent at one end. Operators would lower it into a cave, using the tent to propel data until the robot was released.
The spherical design allows DAEDALUS to fully map its environment 360-degrees with cameras and a lidar. As it lowers into a cave, the interior machine spins sideways to take pictures of the environment. The cable splits to allow the robot to move, but doubles as a wireless antenna to ensure the robot stays connected as it monitors.
Once on the cave floor, the robot has to move over, which it does by moving the battery packs to move the center of its mass around the inside. Now on the “side,” DAEDALUS can move around and explore the cave with an internal motor that spins out the outer plastic shell. While it is rolling, the camera system scans in 360-degrees, and the lid scans forwards and behind. However, there is also a lidar scanning mode that moves objects around. DAEDALUS extends legs that lock the outer surface in place, allowing the inner instrument group to spin. In doing so, it gives the lidar sensors a full 360-degree view of the space.
DAEDALUS looks like a very clever robot, but there’s no information on when it could be a real ESA project (if at all). First, humanity must return to the Moon. A few fragile walkers have gone down recently, but NASA may begin landing astronauts again as part of the Artemis Program as early as 2024.
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