How do you rescue an injured group member at the lunar floor? NASA is searching for concepts, and a proportion of a $45,000 prize pot is up for grabs.
The issue has vexed the USA area company for a while. Regardless that Apollo featured the Good friend Secondary Existence Fortify Device (BSLSS) that allowed group participants to proportion cooling water within the tournament of a lifestyles make stronger gadget failure whilst roaming the lunar floor, the issue for Artemis is extra difficult. NASA needs a way to permit the shipping of a completely incapacitated group member again to the lander from a distance of as much as two kilometers.
The design should no longer employ a lunar rover, should be low in mass (not up to 23 kilograms), and should be of minimum quantity since it’s going to must be transported by means of a group member over all the length of extravehicular job (EVA). It should additionally have the ability to care for the extremes of temperature at the lunar floor and serve as within the presence of lunar mud.
The design should additionally have the ability to maintain slopes of as much as 20 levels up or down, in addition to the rocks and craters that pepper the lunar floor. At the plus facet, it does not wish to supply any scientific consideration or lifestyles make stronger. It simply must be one thing that may be temporarily and simply deployed to move the incapacitated astronaut again to the lander.
It is a captivating psychological workout. How would this type of software paintings? There were research [PDF] at the topic, which got here to the realization {that a} wheeled shipping software “supplies the easiest possibility relief doable,” even if attaching one thing like that to an Artemis EVA swimsuit will provide a problem. Different strolling help choices do not meet the “totally incapacitated” requirement.
The primary crewed touchdown of the Artemis program is scheduled for no longer previous than 2026, that means that little time stays for a design to be carried out. NASA would really like complete technical design ideas, preferably with some initial CAD fashions, submitted by means of January 23, 2025, and can announce the winners on February 27. ®
