CRATOS II: Modular ISRU Excavation Tools, Year 2

Goal: To develop tracks, excavator buckets, reactors, and other payloads which can assemble themselves to perform the ISRU objectives of: Robotic mobility, Regolith acquisition, Transportation, Site preparation, and Waste disposal. Capability Need/Knowledge Gap: Acquisition of loose and consolidated soil/regolith at the Moon and Mars is a critical first step to harvesting water and oxygen for the production of propellant and life support consumables. In order to minimize the size (mass and volume) of the excavation vehicles for efficient transport off-Earth, small excavators are planned that will continuously dig and deliver the raw resource to the processing plant over hundreds of days with no, or minimal, human presence to provide maintenance and repair. Therefore, technology advancement is required to demonstrate the ability for a robust system of excavation vehicles to operate autonomously, recharge reliably, and recover from failure or becoming stuck. State-of-the-Art/Knowledge: The proposed system capability makes real a method to successfully perform remote autonomous excavation, and to be able to do so with graceful fleet degradation through individual subcomponent reorganization. A literature search found no similar effort nor examples of individual excavation robot modules self-assembling. Key Technical Challenges: Embedding all required functions within track hardware that exists from previous efforts. Approach/Research Plan: (1) Mechanical and electrical design of track assembly; (2) Fabrication of track assembly; (3) Fabrication and testing of electrical system; (4) Integration of electrical system within track; and, (5) Test Demonstration of two track systems . Two intelligent, self-contained track mechanisms will be constructed from existing hardware and new acquisitions. Each track’s ability to function as a single agent shall be demonstrated through external command over Zigbee wireless from an operator (command agent). Tracks will demonstrate that they each recognize the presence of the other and will arbitrate which will be the Zigbee communications hub for the pair. The pair will communicate back to the command agent via Zigbee that they have successfully formed a team, and state information relative to each will be communicated back to the command agent. The pair will be demonstrated operating via command from the command agent. Next Step: Future phases of the effort will include the development of payload mechanisms, the first of which should be the excavation bucket.

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) encompasses a broad range of systems that enable the production and use of extraterrestrial resources in support of future exploration missions. Large scale demonstrations of robots working together to join pieces of hardware together exist. However, no demonstrations have been found of large scale mechanisms capable of doing excavation work of interest to NASA ISRU, as described in the method here.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.