[OT] Robotic Space WHAT To Invade The Moon???
The Citizen
this sinister plot...
Robotic space penguin to hop across the Moon
18:20 31 August 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Will Knight
The first lunar colonists may not be a humans but compact robots
capable of jumping more than a kilometre in a single bound.
Engineers at US defence contractor Raytheon, in Massachusetts, have
developed a robot, dubbed the Lunar Penguin, that could one day bounce
across perilous craters and imposing mountains on the Moon's craggy
surface using a set of compact rocket boosters.
US president George W Bush has made returning to the Moon, and later
reaching Mars, a crucial part of his vision for future US space
exploration. But, in order for humans to make the Moon a second home,
robotic scouts will need to search for safe landing spots and useful
minerals for colonists to mine.
"Since we could set it down in such a precise location, the Penguin
could be the delivery vehicle for the science community," Raytheon
engineer Karleen Seybold, who is leading the Penguin project, told
Reuters.
Jumping craters
The robot, in fact, bears no physical resemblance to a real penguin,
but looks like a simple, squat, four-legged lunar lander. It is just
under 1 metre tall and weighs 104 kilograms.
The design borrows technology from Raytheon's missile systems - the
rockets come from a ground-based missile defence system and the
guidance system is taken from a Tomahawk cruise missile. Although
Raytheon has yet to receive an order to develop the Lunar Penguin
further, Seybold says the bot could feasibly be launched as soon as
2009.
"The hopping penguin is an interesting concept," says Max Meerman, a
researcher at UK space company Surrey Satellites. "Jumping a mile
means that crater edges, like the ones that cause problems for the
Mars rovers, are not a big issue."
Difficult landing
But Meerman adds that leaping such distances across the surface of the
Moon could subject any instruments aboard the robot to severe stress.
"Landing on the Moon is notoriously difficult," he says. "Much more so
than on Mars, so doing it multiple times will be a big engineering
challenge."
The Lunar Penguin was publicly demonstrated for the first time on
Tuesday at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics'
2005 SPACE Conference and Exhibition in California, US.
The event, which takes place between 30 August and 1 September,
provides a showcase for many new technologies, from supercharged jet
engines to giant hot air balloons.
Leaps and bounds
For the Lunar Penguin to be a viable Moon probe, some of the
prototype's features would need to be redesigned. For example, the
guidance system would need to be reconfigured for navigation on the
Moon rather than on Earth. It currently uses a Global Positioning
System (GPS) receiver, which would not work on the surface of the
Moon, as it uses Earth-orbiting satellites.
Returning to the Moon is unlikely to be straightforward process, says
Ian Wright, a researcher at the UK’s Open University and one of the
team behind the failed Beagle 2 Mars mission. Wright notes that the
last human mission took place more than 30 years ago. But to reach out
to the stars, he says scientists will need to try out novel concepts.
"The robotic penguin sounds like an excellent opportunity to help us
do this," he told New Scientist.
Meerman says the Lunar Penguin's unique approach to lunar locomotion
could prove a useful way of exploring the Moon’s hostile landscape.
"If it's successful, perhaps we could find astronauts on the next
manned Moon mission using the same system to jump over hills," he
says.
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7933
--
The Citizen
"Happy Endings Are Just Stories That Haven't Finished."
@bigpond.net.au Dingo
"The Citizen" <citi...@nospam.ca> wrote in message
news:grohh1hug38pbktg9...@4ax.com...
§¦«The Wraith»¦§
The Citizen <citi...@nospam.ca> typed:
> Has Nate taken over NASA or something? He's got to be responsible for
> this sinister plot...
>
> Robotic space penguin to hop across the Moon
> 18:20 31 August 2005
> NewScientist.com news service
> Will Knight
>
> The first lunar colonists may not be a humans but compact robots
> capable of jumping more than a kilometre in a single bound.
It's just the moon. Send humans... retards.
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