NASA's Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program has awarded $375,000 in contracts to Astrobotic Technology and Carnegie Mellon University to develop sensing and navigation technologies for finding minerals and other resources on the moon, Mars, and other planetary bodies.

"Water, minerals and volatiles are critical resources for exploration of the solar system, but they are trapped in rugged, dark and remote terrain," said Kevin Peterson, Astrobotic's chief technology officer. "The technology we are developing in this research will enable robots to robustly search and explore dark and dangerous environments."

Astrobotic and CMU will work together to develop sensors and software to detect the location of minerals in lunar soil, imaging and mapping technologies to help robots navigate shadowed areas within craters, and navigation and perception technologies that would enable flying robots to explore craters and caves without communication back to Earth.

"Today's robots are great at driving on the surfaces of planets, but they cannot reach or explore the caves that lie below," said William "Red" Whittaker, professor of robotics as well as Astrobotic's chairman and chief science officer.

"These caves are important," he added, "because they could protect explorers from radiation, meteorites and extreme temperatures on the surface. We will develop technology to guide flying robots into steep, confined underground spaces where traditional robots cannot tread."

NASA's STTR program funds research, development, and demonstration of innovative technologies to support NASA's future missions. Each of the three proposals secured by Astrobotic and Carnegie Mellon is valued at $125,000.

The three proposals are outlined below.

Long-Range Terrain Characterization for Productive Regolith Excavation will develop sensors and software to precisely detect the location of minerals in lunar soil. This technology is critical to securing the resources needed for deep-space exploration and future habitats on the moon and other planetary bodies.

Perception and Navigation for Exploration of Shadowed Domainswill develop imaging technology that uses visual cameras, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), and thermal cameras to perceive, localize, and map a robot's surroundings. The technology will produce detailed 3-D models that can be used for navigation in shadowed craters at the poles of the moon.

Subsurface Prospecting by Planetary Drones will develop navigation and perception technology to enable flying robots to explore caves, pits and other complicated topography without communication back to Earth. This research develops the technology to explore, map and model without support from Earth

For more information, visit https://www.astrobotic.com