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It is a little hard to believe that, of all the wheeled rovers and robots that have been sent from Earth to other places – three manned Apollo-era lunar rovers to the moon, two Soviet Lunokhods, a Chinese lunar rover-bot and five American Robot wheels on Mars (one of which is on the road) – none of them actually had headlights of any kind. It’s unexpected, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not like there are many street lights on the moon or on Mars. NASA’s next lunar rover, VIPER, will change that, so calm down.
The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (I bet they invented VIPER first) is sent to the Moon’s South Pole, where it will search for water. The rover is about the size of a golf cart and will use a new type of wheel locomotion, which I’ll let NASA describe:
During normal operations, the rover will roll on the surface. If it encounters extremely soft ground, VIPER can lift each of its wheels independently, almost like feet, and use them to dig and sweep along the surface. This gives it a swim-like motion that can pull the rover out of even very soft ground.
Capable of traversing an incline of up to 15 degrees, the rover’s four-wheel modules are designed with active suspension and independent steering. This means that VIPER can drive sideways or diagonally and even rotate in circles. VIPER can move in any direction without changing the way it is facing, so its science goals and solar panel charging can be optimized.
It can lift the wheels like the feet! It’s pretty exciting, and I think Jeep should look into licensing.
Graphics: NASA
It’s all very interesting, but the innovation I want to talk about here is this very first application of headlights to a wheeled vehicle that won’t drive on Earth. Sure, other rovers have had small lights for individual instruments and spacecraft, including the Lunar Lander, have had lights, but this will be the first time automotive-style headlights will be needed.
Why did it take so long? Especially since this is the first time humans will truly drive in the dark outside world. The water can be in dark craters or other murky depths, so rovers need to be able to see. NASA even built a simulated “sandbox” in a dark moon area:
NASA’s lighting development on VIPER uses LED arrays for the lights, just as many modern cars do, and will have a couple of tree-mounted light arrays and up to six individually controlled lights around the rover’s base, which i like imagine you look like those neon dealies from the 90s.
Graphics: NASA
NASA is still developing the lighting system, which you can see being tested in the special Dark Moon sandbox above.
The challenges are more or less the same as the challenges of automotive lighting. According to Uland Wong, chief of VIPER navigation hardware at NASA’s Ames lab,
“We face challenges similar to those of any car designer. Whether it’s a rover or the next sedan model, a bad lighting design means a driver can’t see the details in the landscape. We have to pay particular attention to these challenges on the Moon because once VIPER arrives, there is no return. “
A much bigger problem on the Moon than on Earth is backscatter, as dust on the lunar surface tends to reflect a lot of light back, rendering the rover’s navigation cameras useless, and there are hardly any paved roads on the Moon where this can be avoided. .
This is a big deal, the first headlights on the moon because it means it’s only a matter of time before there are turn signals, sidelights and taillights, and we can finally take the topic of the amber rear indicator into space, where it can thrive, forever.
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