NASA auditions robots for lunar missions

What the future holds for Athlete and the rest of its robotic brethren depends in part on how NASA’s lunar exploration plans take shape in the years ahead. NASA is due to release its first stab at a lunar surface architecture during the Exploration Conference in Houston.

Culbert said NASA has more work to do before it can say whether six-legged rovers like Athlete are the answer to its lunar surface mobility needs, or if a “simple flatbed truck” approach might be a better way to go. “We may find out outpost on the Moon doesn’t require a lot of climbing up and down hills,” he said.

To help answer these questions, Culbert and his team plan to keep building robots and putting them through their paces. But he admits that these important early efforts are for the time being rather resource constrained.

“With the amount of money I’ve got available I won’t be able to do everything that needs to be done,” he said.

NASA hopes to spend more money on Human Robotic Systems in the years ahead. NASA’s 2007 budget request, still awaiting approval from Congress, includes $18 million for Culbert and the team of 40 or so civil servants and contractor personnel spread across the agency. NASA’s most recent five-year-plan forecast ramping the program up to $25 billion a year by 2011, but Culbert admitted that might be a tough sell given some of the other pressures on the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate’s budget.

If additional money is forthcoming, Culbert said the program would like to build a new moon buggy next year equipped with an active suspension system tuned to handle tougher terrain. Human Robotic Systems group may also build a crane in 2007 and possibly add it to one of the Athlete rovers.

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