Robotic Scouting for Human Exploration

By 2020, NASA plans to return to the Moon with a new series of regularly spaced surface missions. Crewed missions will initially be "extended sortie" (e.g., 1-2 weeks). During the first few years of the lunar campaign, humans will be on the Moon less than 10% of the time. During the 90% of time between crew visits, robots could perform tasks under ground control. This paper presents the system design for a prototype robotic recon robot and ground control approach, as well as a terrestrial analog field test designed to assess the utility of recon for augmenting and assisting human exploration of a lunar-like environment. Results are presented for recent field testing of the reconnaissance robot in northern Arizona.