High Resolution Lunar Terrain from JPL

The Goldstone Solar System Radar in the Mojave Desert has collected data that provides the highest resolution map of the lunar south pole at 20 square meters per pixel.

"The south pole of the moon certainly would be a beautiful place to explore," said Doug Cooke, deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "We now know the south pole has peaks as high as Mt. McKinley and crater floors four times deeper than the Grand Canyon. There are challenges that come with such rugged terrain, and these data will be an invaluable tool for advance planning of lunar missions."

Read the full press release from NASA JPL: link.

Where is the Goldstone Solar System Radar? Locate it in Google Maps: link.

NASA Lunar Robot Rover with Drill

Courtesy: SpaceRef

At AIAA's 3rd Space Exploration Conference this week in Denver, Colorado, NASA will display a rover designed to drill into regolith and prospect lunar craters. The rover will be equipped with an instrument package known as the Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction (RESOLVE), which will be used to characterize the composition of lunar regolith. The instrument package will take a sample of regolith, crush it, heat it, and detect the gases that escape. 

Read the full press release on SpaceRef.

For more information, see also:

• nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/main/lunar_truck.html
• spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/Advanced/Capabilities/ISRU
• www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar_resources
  

Richard Feynman on Scientific Integrity

As an amorphous guideline for what should be included in your report for the rover design competition, I give you the following thoughts from Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. What should you take from this? If you explain not just the good features of your rover, but also the questionable features and why it is possible that they may fail, we--the judges--will see that as a very positive thing. Every design has its flaws; the designers that recognize their flaws will be the most successful, as they will know what needs to be fixed.

(Or, in other words, we also have access to the internet, journals, experts, etc., so we have a pretty good idea of what might be wrong with your design--but we think you'll come up with something creative so go for it.)

Now it behooves me, of course, to tell you what they're missing. But it would be just about as difficult to explain to the  South Sea Islanders how they have to arrange things so that they get some wealth in their system. It is not something simple like telling them how to improve the  shapes of the earphones. But there  is one feature  I notice  that is generally missing in cargo cult science. That is the idea that we all  hope you have learned in studying science in school--we never explicitly say what this is, but just hope that you catch on by all the examples of scientific investigation. It is interesting, therefore, to bring it out now and speak of it explicitly. It's a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty--a  kind of leaning over backwards. For  example, if you're  doing  an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid--not only what you think is right about it: other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you've eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked--to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated.

Details that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know them. You must do the best you can--if you know anything at all wrong, or possibly wrong--to explain it. If you make a theory, for example, and advertise it, or put it out, then you must also put down all the facts that disagree  with it, as well as those that agree with it. There is also a more subtle problem. When you have put a lot of ideas together to make an elaborate theory, you want to make sure, when explaining what it fits, that those things it fits are not just  the things that gave you the idea for the theory; but that the finished theory makes something else come out right, in addition.

In summary, the idea is to try to give all of the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another.

Deployment

Welcome to the UKSC/SEDSIC Mini Lunar Rover Design Competition.

Web site: http://earth.seds.org/rovers 

What is it? Design a small lunar rover (less than 15 kg) that will assist a human mission in exploring the moon.

When will the competition be held? Phase I, conceptual designs, will be presented at the UK Space Conference, held on 26 to 29 March 2008 in Surrey, England. (If you are unable to attend UKSC, you may be eligible to host your own Phase I; see SEDS Forums for details.) Phase II, design-and-build competition will be held at the SEDS International Conference in Glasgow, Scotland on 27 to 28 September 2008.

Who is eligible? Fulltime students. 

What is the deadline? Abstracts are due by 7 March 2008. 

Do you have additional questions? Ask as many questions as you like in the rover design competition forum. 

For more information:

• Web site: http://earth.seds.org/rovers
• Email list: http://www.seds.org/mailman/listinfo/rovers (for official rules changes and notifications)
• Forum: http://forums.seds.org/showthread.php?t=3007
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sedsic