Development and Testing Of An Autonomous Regolith Excavation and Delivery System

NORCAT Inc has been developing In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) payloads since 1999, commencing with exploration drills and including excavation systems and mining techniques and technologies specific to the handling of regolith and rock. In 2008 and 2010, NORCAT participated in a multi phase analog deployment specific to ISRU systems. One aspect tested during these deployments was a closed cycle ISRU loop, wherein a NORCAT Load Haul Dump (LHD) provided tephra to the Orbitec Carbothermal oxygen plant. The Water produced was electrolysed and the hydrogen so produced was used to fuel a NORCAT fuel cell which powered the LHD. The effort was to begin the task of fully automating the regolith delivery cycle from the LHD’s perspective. This paper will report on the development and testing of an autonomous system for the delivery of regolith to an oxygen production facility. The system development is multi staged. First stage was developed and tested in Hawaii in January 2010. It featured a Neptec TriDAR vision system, a NORCAT/ODG/Neptec ISRU chassis, and a NORCAT Load Haul Dump system. This paper will focus on the results of that development and testing phase and will discuss the way forward for subsequent phases.