Abstract

In light of the successful robotic exploration of many parts of the solar system, including the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, more interest will be focused on using robotic vehicles to explore the surfaces of the Moon, Mars, and other planetary bodies in the solar system, such as Titan, Europa, and Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). One way to advance the capability of robotic vehicles is to develop hopping technology, which traverses over instead of across planetary surfaces. The TALARIS (Terrestrial Artificial Lunar And Reduced gravIty Simulator) project at MIT seeks to develop an Earth-based prototype hopper, which will be used as a testbed for guidance, navigation, and control software for a later space-based planetary surface hopper. The TALARIS prototype utilizes a dual propulsion system, consisting of air-breathing electric ducted fans and impulsive compressed cold gas working in tandem, to simulate the differing levels of gravity that planetary surface hoppers will encounter.

Submission Document

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