Autonomous Robotics for Resource Mapping to Enable In-Situ Resource Utilization

利用月球、火星或小行星上可用材料的能力将对太空探索任务大有裨益。由于使命地点有供应品，所需的有效载荷将减少。这将允许更便宜的任务，因为发射燃料与有效载荷的重量比大于9：1。这还将为其他仪器和工具腾出宝贵的有效载荷空间，从而能够进行更有效和更高回报的飞行任务。在潜在的载人飞行任务中，资源开采网络将在载人发射之前很久就发射了。同时，并行的机器人任务将在不同地点收集氧气，水或燃料，从而大大提高了稍后发射的机组人员的安全性。在载人使命期间，这一程序当然可以继续下去，为宇航员提供持续不断的所需资源。在考虑利用未知环境中的材料之前，必须首先确定资源的位置和识别。一旦做到这一点，就必须确定开采地点，以最大限度地提高资源的预期产量。最后一个问题是，由于资源地点可能远离基地或使命着陆地点，因此要准备好这两个地点之间的运输路径。拟议研究的主要目标是开发必要的专业知识和科学知识，以开发一个合作的自主机器人系统网络，以展示在大型，非结构化和未知环境中定位所需资源的能力，并为可能在月球，火星或小行星上使用的空间任务的进一步资源提取做好准备。这项技术的好处不仅限于空间应用。就地资源开采的赋能技术可以很好地服务于广泛的地面应用。这些应用包括地球上的采矿和资源收集，以及自主机器人合作网络的几乎无限潜力。排除爆炸性地雷、搜索和救援、对危险环境进行科学和其他探索以及大规模地区的卫生只是其中的几种可能性。

The ability to take advantage of the materials available on the moon, Mars, or asteroids will be of great benefit to space exploration missions. Required payloads would be smaller as supplies would be available at the mission site. This would allow for much less expensive missions as the launch fuel-to-payload weight ratio is greater than 9:1. This would also free up valuable payload space for other instruments and tools, allowing more effective and higher return missions to be undertaken. In the case of potential manned missions, networks of resource extractors would be launched long before the manned launch. Simultaneous, parallel robotic missions would collect oxygen, water or fuel at various locations thus greatly improving the safety of the crew launched later. This procedure can certainly continue for the duration of the manned mission itself, providing a continuous supply of resources needed by the astronauts. Prior to any consideration of the utilization of material from within an unknown environment, resources must first be located and identified. Once that is accomplished, an extraction site must be identified to maximize the expected yield of the resource. The final problem, as the resource site may be far from the base or landing site for the mission, is the preparation of transport paths between these two locations. The main goal of the proposed research is to develop the necessary expertise and scientific knowledge to develop a network of cooperating autonomous robotic systems to demonstrate the ability to locate the desired resources within a large, unstructured and unknown environment and prepare the site for further resource extraction for space missions as might be utilised on the moon, Mars or an asteroid. The benefits of this technology are not limited to space applications. A broad spectrum of terrestrial applications could be well served by the enabling technology for in-situ resource extraction. The applications include mining and resource collection on earth as well as the virtually unlimited potential of networks of cooperative networks of autonomous robotics. Explosive-mine clearing, search and rescue, scientific and other exploration of hazardous environments, and sanitation of large scale areas are just a few of the possibilities.