Lunar science measurement approaches and operational techniques that can be achieved with nanorovers

我们探索太空的方法正在迅速变化，实体也是如此。曾经纯粹是政府太空机构的领域，私营企业正准备在太空探索中发挥越来越大的作用。这其中的一个关键原因是小型化的进步，这使得越来越有能力的任务能够用更小的航天器完成。这为所谓的纳米遗漏的发展开辟了令人振奋的新的可能性，这为新兴空间国家、商业企业、甚至预算有限的成熟空间国家提供了参与全球努力的负担得起的机会。纳米探测器面临的一个主要挑战是减少科学仪器的有效载荷空间。实际上，总有效载荷可能是2公斤或更少，相比之下，NASA的好奇号探测车目前正在探索火星，科学仪器的有效载荷为80公斤。这项NSERC Engage赠款旨在迈出第一步，以确定不同的测量方法和操作技术，这些方法和操作技术可以通过小纳米覆盖平台实现。

The methods by which we explore space are changing rapidly, as are the entities. Once purely the realm ofgovernment space agencies, private industry is poised to play an ever increasing role in the exploration ofspace. A key reason for this is advances in miniaturization that have allowed increasingly capable missionswith smaller spacecraft. This has opened up exciting new possibilities for the development of so-callednanomissions, which represent affordable opportunities for participation in the global endeavor for emergingspace nations, commercial enterprise and even mature space nations with constrained budgets. A majorchallenge for nanorovers, i.e., platforms a few 10s kg, is the reduce payload space for scientific instruments.Indeed, the total payload could be 2 kg or less, which compares to the 80 kg of payload for science instrumentson NASA's Curiosity rover, currently exploring Mars. This NSERC Engage grant aims to take the first steps incharacterizing different measurement approaches and operational techniques that can be achieved with a smallnanorover platform.