Progress of Research on a New Asteroid Exploration Rover Considering Thermal Control

Asteroids have some clues about the origin of the solar system. In recent years, asteroid exploration by surface explorers has been studied actively. Conventional rovers can move under microgravity environment, but the rovers have not considered thermal control. This paper proposes a novel mobility mechanism for a rover under microgravity environment along with temperature control. The effectiveness of the proposed rover is investigated by simulations and microgravity experiments.