REMOTE CONTROL AND NAVIGATION TESTS FOR APPLICATION TO LONGRANGE LUNAR SURFACE EXPLORATION

W. C. Mastin, F. L. Vinz and P. R. While

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	To fully utilize the capabilities of a vehicle on the lunar surface, the vehicle should be capable of being remotely driven from the earth. In addition to the pure unmanned flight, a teleoperated vehicle could also be used on manned missions at times when the astronauts are not operating it or have departed the lunar surface. For successful operation, a vehicle of this type should have good naneuverability and versatility. Before a mission of this type could be successfuly effected, many unknowns would require investigation. Some of these are listed below. (1) Determine whether the vehicle can be successfully driven with the long round-trip time delays of the signals (for lunar operation up to 6 sec). (2) Determine the energy requirements for different types of missions. (3) Determine the television (TV) type (stereo versus mono, frame rate, etx.) and camara position (heights, etx.) most suitable for driving. (4) Determine whether the antenna orientation toward earth can be maintained satisfactorily on a moving vehicle. (5) Determine the most satisfactory onboard navigation system. (6) Determine the best type of driving (stop and go versus contiuous) speeds compatible with the time delays and hazards of the terrain. The following sections describe a vehicle system built and tested at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to investigate some of these unknowns.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 19, Number 1
Pages:	42 - 60
Cite this article:	Mastin, W. C., Vinz, F. L., While, P. R., "REMOTE CONTROL AND NAVIGATION TESTS FOR APPLICATION TO LONGRANGE LUNAR SURFACE EXPLORATION", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 19, No. 1, Spring 1972, pp. 42-60.
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