National Aeronautics and Space Administration Introduction to Lunar Excavator Senior Design Project Mission Objective: Design a excavator to dig lunar dirt at rate, power consumption, mass specified by NASA Follow a “Systems Engineering” Approach No hints from your instructor – you will need to design your own system But you will have resources to prepare you for lunar machinery design

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Resources Handbook and Webpage containing Chapters on Chapter 1: Introduction – what been happening, what’s going to happen moon missions Chapters 2-4: Systems Engineering “How to” Chapter 5: Lunar environment Chapter 6: Component design and selection Chapter 7: Thermal control Chapter 8: CAE tools

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Moon vs. Earth Heiken, Vaniman, & French (1991)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Past Lunar Missions -

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Past Landing Spots

Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV or “Moon Buggy”) The LRV has “legacy” (proven to be reliable in operation). When making one-of-a-kind systems for use in a space, legacy can have strongly influence new designs

Earth Construction Machinery Lunar Base Applications for Construction Machinery similar to Needs on Earth Construction, excavation, unloading/loading, transporting loads, site preparation, roads, berms, trenches, digging and drilling Will lunar equipment look like this???? Backhoe loader Excavator for Earth

Earth Excavators and Lunar Excavators are not the Same Earth ExcavatorLunar Excavator Power SourceInternal Combustion Engine (ICE) ??? (and not an ICE) ActuatorsHydraulic Cylinders??? (and not hydraulic) PropulsionTracked or wheeledTracked, wheeled or something else? SensingHuman OperatorSensors – many options ControllerHuman OperatorAutonomous vs. teleoperated “Trade Studies” are a powerful tool to compare and rank choices And don’t think it has to look like an earth excavator!

Recent and Future Mission MissionYearSummary Lunar Prospector/ Clemintine 1994, 1998 Small spacecraft orbiters that sensed significant amount of Hydrogen in dark polar craters Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) 2008Orbiter to map and characterize future landing sites for In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) 2008Launched with LRO to search for water-ice in dark polar craters, later deploying a spacecraft to impact a dark crater with second following and sensing impact cloud for water-ice Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) 2020Man returns to the moon on the CEV and lunar lander

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lunar Base Architectures Regolith Excavation Area Oxygen Plant Habitat and airlocks Solar Arrays Radio Antenna Radiators Fuel cells

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Dark Craters and Mountains of Perpetual Light at the Poles

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Polar Base Architecture

Technology Readiness Level NASA measures the maturity of a technology on a scale from 1 to 10. TRL 1 level projects are considered basic research (most student excavator projects will start here and stay low TRL level). TRL 9 means the technology is mission ready (for an excavator, that implies it is ready to send to the moon).

National Aeronautics and Space Administration ITAR ITAR is the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). It is a law and punishable with fines and imprisonment if violated. It purpose is to control the export and import of defense-related articles and services, which often includes work on NASA projects. Designs, test data, software codes, etc. should not be shared with non-US citizens. Or, if you have access to such data you are not allowed to share it with non-US citizens.