The lunar hopper, designed and tested by Polish company Astronika, introduces a novel approach to navigating the Moon's surface.
Unlike rovers, which struggle with the Moon's loose layers of rock and dust, known as regolith, especially in mountainous areas, the hopper is equipped to leap over obstacles, facilitating exploration in previously inaccessible regions which are of particular interest to scientists studying the solar system's history and the Moon's natural resources.
Lead engineer Łukasz Wiśniewski explained: "If the hopper gets stuck somewhere, it's not a problem. That's exactly its task, to reach places where no one has attempted to go before and to perform pioneering measurements.
"So far, most planned exploration missions have been very conservative. Rovers and landers were only sent to relatively flat, safe terrain, which unfortunately only provides scientific information about the most recent history of the celestial body. And even then, these machines often landed in unexpectedly difficult conditions or tipped over and gradually became useless."
During a presentation at the European Space Agency's (ESA) European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, Netherlands, Astronika showcased the completed leg mechanism of the hopper.
This phase of the project involved designing, manufacturing and testing the hopper's legs – crucial for its mobility.
The successful demonstration has paved the way for the potential continuation of the project, with hopes that the ESA will commission a full-scale model for use in lunar missions.
The demand for such robots is expected to grow, with plans from NASA, ESA, and the China National Space Administration to send at least a dozen landers to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids in the coming decade.
This technology offers solutions to the problems encountered by previous space missions, such as landers toppling over or getting stuck in difficult terrain.
Unlike previous hopping robots, which were only effective in microgravity conditions, the Polish lunar hopper weighs less than 10 kg and is energy-efficient, capable of jumping over 3 meters high on the Moon.
Its design, inspired by the way a grasshopper propels itself using lightweight legs, is easily scalable to different gravitational environments. The simplicity and durability of the design, along with its low power consumption, are its key features.
The hopper's potential missions include analyzing lunar dust composition, conducting spectrometric measurements, photographing the mother lander from various perspectives, and examining the load-bearing properties of the lunar surface.
Equipped with cameras, it can also study the mechanical properties of regolith, providing valuable information for future human and vehicular activity on the Moon, and possibly reducing the costs of future space missions.
The final design of the lunar robot remains to be determined, with a combination of wheels and hopping legs being considered. This approach seeks to enhance the safety and scientific value of missions by exploring high-risk terrains that were previously deemed too dangerous for valuable rovers.
This project, funded by the ESA through the Polish Industry Incentive Scheme (PLIIS) in cooperation with the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), demonstrates the growing role of Polish experts in advancing space exploration technology, state news agency PAP reported.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP