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Completed TRL 3 (started at 2, targeting 3)
JOEEE (Jumping Orientable Extreme Environment Explorer) is a novel planetary surface mobility platform that uses internal brake-able flywheels to enable cartwheeling, hopping, and precision pointing. JOEEE’s unique maneuvering capability enables deployment of scientific and engineering payloads in terrain and environments inaccessible to traditional wheeled rovers or rocket hoppers. The goals of this proposal are to complete the demonstration of the mobility system in hardware prototypes (TRL maturation), refine the system design, and work with instrument developers and mission planners on mission-specific variations.
JOEEEs enable a number of new mission classes for planetary surface exploration. JOEEEs are designed to hop, cartwheel, and re-orient after tumbling. They are natural mobility solutions for exploring inside PSRs, caves, and craters as they are not only robust to tumbles and falls, but tumbling and subsequent reorientation is the fundamental system design and concept of operations. Further, with no external moving parts, the JOEEE system design allows for the entire explorer to be hermetically sealed; this prevents dust intrusion/wear and minimizes thermal leak paths.
While this project specifically targets mobility for the Lunar surface, it can readily be applied to the Martian surface, surface of other moons, or even small bodies such as comets and asteroids as demonstrated by MINERVA-II on the asteroid Ryugu.
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This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.
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