LUVMI: an innovative payload for the sampling of volatiles at the Lunar poles

The ISECG identifies one of the first exploration steps as in situ investigations of the moon or asteroids. Europe is developing payload concepts for drilling and sample analysis, a contribution to a 250kg rover as well as for sample return. To achieve these missions, ESA depends on international partnerships. Such missions will be seldom, expensive and the drill/sample site selected will be based on observations from orbit not calibrated with ground truth data. Many of the international science community’s objectives can be met at lower cost, or the chances of mission success improved and the quality of the science increased by making use of an innovative, low mass, mobile robotic payload following the LEAG recommendations. LUVMI provides a smart, low mass, innovative, modular mobile payload comprising surface and subsurface sensing with an in-situ sampling technology capable of depth-resolved extraction of volatiles, combined with a volatile analyser (mass spectrometer) capable of identifying the chemical composition of the most important volatiles. This will allow LUVMI to: traverse the lunar surface prospecting for volatiles; sample subsurface up to a depth of 10 cm (with a goal of 20 cm); extract water and other loosely bound volatiles; identify the chemical species extracted; access and sample permanently shadowed regions (PSR). The main innovation of LUVMI is to develop an in situ sampling technology capable of depth-resolved extraction of volatiles, and then to package within this tool, the analyser itself, so as to maximise transfer efficiency and minimise sample handling and its attendant mass requirements and risk of sample alteration. By building on national, EC and ESA funded research and developments, this project will develop to TRL6 instruments that together form a smart modular mobile payload that could be flight ready in 2020. The LUVMI sampling instrument will be tested in a highly representative environment including thermal, vacuum and regolith simulant and the integrated payload demonstrated in a representative environment

Assessing the Distribution of Water Ice and Other Volatiles at the Lunar South Pole with LUVMI-X: A Mission Concept

The search for exploitable deposits of water and other volatiles at the Moon’s poles has intensified considerably in recent years, due to the renewed strong interest in lunar exploration. With the return of humans to the lunar surface on the horizon, the use of locally available resources to support long-term and sustainable exploration programs, encompassing both robotic and crewed elements, has moved into focus of public and private actors alike. Our current knowledge about the distribution and concentration of water and other volatiles in the lunar rocks and regolith is, however, too limited to assess the feasibility and economic viability of resource-extraction efforts. On a more fundamental level, we currently lack sufficiently detailed data to fully understand the origins of lunar water and its migration to the polar regions. In this paper, we present LUVMI-X, a mission concept intended to address the shortage of in situ data on volatiles on the Moon that results from a recently concluded design study. Its central element is a compact rover equipped with complementary instrumentation capable of investigating both the surface and shallow subsurface of illuminated and shadowed areas at the lunar south pole. We describe the rover and instrument design, the mission’s operational concept, and a preliminary landing-site analysis. We also discuss how LUVMI-X fits into the diverse landscape of lunar missions under development

Application Of The LVS Subsurface Probe On The LUVMI Rover For A LUNAR Volatiles Exploration Mission

We present the latest iteration of the Lunar Volatiles Scout (LVS), a novel instrument to access and characterise lunar volatiles insitu. The LVS is currently being developed in a cooperation between Technical University of Munich (TUM) and OHB System as part of the Lunar Volatiles Mobile Instrument (LUVMI)study, conducted in the frame of the EU Horizon 2020 initiative and led by the Belgian company Space Applications Services. LUVMI aims to develop a comprehensive light-weight(20-40 kg)rover for investigations on volatiles in and around permanently shadowed regions on the Moon. The platform is envisioned as a possible secondary payload to one of the currently planned missions to the lunar poles. It features an active chassis with four independently steerable wheels, an innovative light-field camera, the Volatiles Sampler (represented by the LVS), and the Volatiles Analyser (miniature mass spectrometer)

Towards a new Bretton Woods?: the first G20 leader summit and the regulation of global finance

In a variety of emergency settings robot assistance has been identified as highly valuable, providing remote, and thus safe, access and operation. There are many different forms of human-robot interactions, allowing a team of humans and robots to take advantage of skills of each team member. A relatively new area of research considers interactions between human and a team of robots performing as a swarm. This work is concerned with the interactive use of autonomous robots in fire emergency settings. In particular, we consider a swarm of robots that are capable of supporting and enhancing fire fighting operations co-operatively and we investigate how firefighters in the field work with such a swarm. This paper outlines some of the key characteristics of this emergency setting. It discusses possible forms of interactions with swarm robotics being examined in the GUARDIANS project. The paper addresses the use of assistive swarm robotics to support firefighters with navigation and search operations. It reports on existing firefighters operations and how human-swarm interactions are to be used during such operations. The design approaches for human-swarm interaction are described and the preliminary work in the area are outlined. The paper ends by linking current expertise with common features of emergency related interaction design

Self-Optimizing Human-Robot Systems for Search and Rescue in Disaster Scenarios

Witkowski U, Herbrechtsmeier S, Tanoto A, et al. Self-Optimizing Human-Robot Systems for Search and Rescue in Disaster Scenarios. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Heinz Nixdorf Symposium. 2008.The increasing capabilities of robot systems enable new fields of practical applica- tions for individual robots as well as multi-robot systems. But for some applica- tion scenarios like a fire or earthquake disaster current robots are still too limited to act fully autonomously in the disaster area. To overcome these limitations we consider a heterogeneous team of humans and robots complementing each other. Core application considered in this paper is a large burning warehouse with smoke making it difficult for fire fighters to search the building and to orientate them- selves inside the warehouse. Therefore, an assisting team of robots is surrounding the fire fighters searching the proximity, providing orientation data, and establish- ing a wireless communication infrastructure on a basis of a mobile ad-hoc net- work. The adaptation of the robots is achieved by applying principles of self- optimization on different levels of the human-robot system. In this paper, we are considering self-optimization inside an individual robot to optimize its behaviour, within a group of robots, and in the entire system compris- ing of robots and humans. The focus of the optimization is the distribution of ro- bots by applying swarming behaviour for forming a mobile ad-hoc communica- tion network and performing map building