| タイトル | Robosphere1: Building A Self-Sustaining Robotic Ecology for Mars Exploration |
| 著者（英） | Colombano, Silvano P.; Clancy, Daniel |
| 著者所属（英） | NASA Ames Research Center |
| 発行日 | 2002-01-01 |
| 言語 | eng |
| 内容記述 | Robotic exploration of Mars has been a "one shot" approach where each surface mission is planned typically with a rover that will perform a series of experiments for a few weeks or months, until the robot becomes unable to operate in the harsh Mars conditions and simply "dies". It would clearly be desirable to have robots on Mars that can last for much longer periods of time, I propose that there is an approach to sustained robotic exploration that can also pave the way to future human presence. The idea is to continue building a robotic infrastructure with every mission we send. The approach is to built a team of modular robots that could repair individual members when they break down. We could "seed" areas of interest with sturdy power stations (solar, chemical) that teams of robots could use to recharge themselves. We could also seed parts and modules the robots could access for self-repair. No mission could really "fail" if we simply keep adding to and maintaining the existing infrastructure. Simply landing a package of parts will be a success. In time we create a loose infrastructure that can be controlled and augmented from earth on a continuing basis, and which could eventually pave the way for human exploration. I propose that we could begin to build this infrastructure from relatively simple modular robots. Imagine 2 "spider-like" robots built out of small modular snap-in pieces, a bin of these pieces and a bin of snap-in end effectors. One of the spiders breaks down, i.e. one of its modules needs to be replaced. The second spider comes to the rescue and helps the first one replace the broken module. Assuming the input of fresh modules, this process can continue indefinetly. Now start separating robotic explorers from robotic "mechanics", start adding, a category of mechanics that are able to fix at least some of the broken modules (and which in turn can be fixed by the original mechanics), The need for a fresh influx of modules is thus reduced. I submit that we could bootstrap a robotic ecology until it needs very little material from earth and can rely mostly on in-situ resources., We can experiment with this concept in an earthbound facility that can also simulate Mars conditions. I propose that we call this facility Robosphere1. |
| NASA分類 | Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration |
| 権利 | No Copyright |
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