Features
Shooting for the moon
NC State engineers are building a rover that could one day run on the moon.
NC State engineering students and faculty are playing an important role in a not-so-academic project: building a rover that could actually travel on the surface of the moon.
The group is part of a larger team working to produce a mission to the moon as part of the Google Lunar X Prize competition, which offers $30 million in prize money to encourage development of privately-funded space exploration. Team STELLAR, as the team is known, is one of 16 teams from around the world vying for the award.
“How many students get to build a rover that might travel on the moon one day?” said Dr. Andre Mazzoleni, an associate professor of mechanical engineering working on the project. “It’s been a wonderful opportunity for these students to be part of something that could revolutionize space travel.”
The prize represents an important step in the development of privately funded space exploration, an industry commonly referred to as “New Space.” If one of the teams successfully lands a vehicle on the moon, it would be the first privately funded mission to do so.
Mazzoleni and Dr. William Edmonson, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and five graduate students are part of the group’s rover team, which is creating designs for the vehicle that would explore the lunar service. Team STELLAR leaders, meanwhile, are working to raise money to support the project.
Then there’s the prize money. The first team to land a rover on the moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar service and send images and data back to Earth — all by the end of 2012 — receives $20 million. The second team will receive $5 million, and another $5 million in bonus prizes are also available.
The competition is modeled after the $25,000 that was awarded to Charles
Lindberg in 1927 for making the first transatlantic flight.
“The prize intends to one day make space as accessible as overseas flight
is today,” said Brandon Nichols, a graduate student in aerospace engineering
and rover team member.
Team STELLAR was formed in October 2007 as a partnership between the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and several other local organizations, including Insight Technologies and the Advanced Vehicle Research Center. Since then, Mazzoleni, Edmonson and their students have been completing the design for the six-wheeled Earth Demonstrator Vehicle, essentially a prototype rover that will be tested on Earth. After this initial testing phase, the team will build a rover with different materials specifically designed for the stresses of the lunar environment.
The team has already selected a proposed landing zone near the moon’s Ocean of Storms, which has been the site of several significant lunar landings. Among them: the 1969 Apollo 12 mission that was the second manned journey to the moon. The team chose the landing spot so it could take photos of hardware left behind by previous lunar missions. Gathering those photos would gain the team some of the bonus prize money.
But before any launch can take place, much testing remains. In addition to building the Earth Demonstrator Vehicle, the team has also been working with software programs that allow the team to test the rover in a virtual lunar environment, giving them important insight on how the rover will perform on the moon.
The team estimates that the final rover, which will be known as the “Stellar Eagle,” will weigh around 20 kilograms, or 44 pounds, which has been trimmed down substantially from earlier, heavier designs the team considered. The team said it was important that the vehicle be as light as possible, as each extra pound would increase the cost of getting it to the moon.
All the design, planning and fundraising represent a monumental effort to land a prize awarded to one team competing against many. But NC State team members say the competition is developing an entrepreneurial spirit that could signal a new era in space exploration.
“Space is similar to the West during the gold rush,” Nichols said. “You’re
probably not going to see an increase in exploration and development until
people realize that there is an opportunity to make money there.” 