Skip to content

ESDMD #0806: Payload Offloading, Handling, and Manipulation for Surface Assets

Robotic handling of surface cargo, from crew-portable items up to element-scale loads of hundreds to thousands of kilograms, lifted to tens of meters (bin 2, rating 7 of 57). Today crews move payloads by hand, with pulleys and ladders. Without closure, "crew would be required to manually move all payloads from landers". It is named in the Moon Base Users Guide (near-term), for logistics (Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0806; Users Guide, pp. 12–13).

Quotations below are from row ESDMD #0806 of the tech gaps spreadsheet unless marked otherwise. ADD Rev C's Appendix D prints the same table for this gap, and it matches the row field for field, ✓ included (ADD Rev C, p. 241).

Description

"Human-scale robotic manipulation can enable a broad set of crew support, infrastructure support, and utilization tasks during crewed and uncrewed periods. As the surface architecture evolves and stay times increase, current offloading practices will no longer be sufficient to manage large amounts of logistics and utilization cargo without technology development. Greater multi-purpose material handling capabilities will be desired to manage the large amounts of cargo. This includes technologies such as those for larger-scale off- and on-loading, transfer, elevated access, robotic manipulators/end effectors, construction, assembly (including industrial scale power), and disassembly capabilities."

Impacts and benefits: "Without gap closure, crew would be required to manually move all payloads from landers, which will reduce crew time for other mission critical activities and extravehicular activities."

Current state of the art

"Crew manual labor to manipulate logistics cargo and payloads that do not provide their own mobility systems. Small mechanical assist with pullies and crew carry. Surface level access and lightweight ladders."

Performance target

  • Moon/Mars: "Uncrewed logistics transfer methodologies. 100s to 1000s of kgs robotic load handling/transfer capacities. Expand from crew portable to large element-scale volumes. Access from surface level to elevated heights up to 10s of meters."
  • Mars: "In addition, increased autonomy and reliability compared to the lunar performance target."

For comparison, the Users Guide's Phase 1 robotics capability target is "Demonstration of capabilities to unload and manipulate cargo (10kg) on the surface" (Users Guide, p. 8; see Phase 1 functional gaps). The two sources do not relate these figures.

Child gaps

  • 0806-01*: Affordance recognition, grasp planning, and execution for autonomous object and interface manipulation
  • 0806-02: Payload maneuvering tools for offloading, positioning, and delivery
  • 1001-01*: Robust robotic sensors
  • 1001-02*: Adaptable robotic end effectors for fine grasping and manipulation
  • 1001-03*: Efficient autonomous object detection, classification, and pose estimation

The starred child gaps recur under other gaps: 0806-01 under #0501, #0504 and #0505; the 1001 children under #0501, #0504 and #1001. The asterisk marks "a child gap with multiple parents" (ADD Rev C, p. 199).

Traceability

  • Use cases and functions: UC-A-103 L -- All FN; UC-A-105 M -- All FN
  • Definition tasks: Moon: ✓LD-102 Lunar Logistics Strategy. Mars: Small Cargo Delivery, Stowage, and Return Strategy; Priorities for Crew vs. Robotic Tasks Strategy. The ✓ is printed in the sheet; the ADD's gap tables say "“✓” indicates completed definition task" (ADD Rev C, p. 204). The decision: "a hybrid strategy for delivering required logistics to elements on the lunar surface using a variety of solutions ranging from small portable carriers to large mated carriers" (p. 75; Key definition tasks)

Segments and sub-architectures

Priority

Priority bin 2, overall prioritization rating 7 of 57. The rating is "the gap's location in the prioritized list of gaps", so 1 is the highest priority, and bins group gaps of similar priority, bin 1 highest. Criticality, urgency, breadth and depth set the order; cost is not considered (ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199; method on the gaps index).

Moon Base relevance

The Users Guide names #0806 for the associated challenge "Moving logistics": "Manipulating and transferring lunar surface logistics requires robotic systems for off loading and manipulating payloads, as well as long duration packaging systems for protecting cargo" (Users Guide, pp. 12–13). The guide ties its challenges to "near-term Moon Base development efforts": missions in phase one "offer opportunities to collect data and mature technologies to enable essential phase two and phase three capabilities" (p. 11). See Technology and knowledge challenges.

Sources

Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0806 · ADD Rev C, pp. 75, 78, 199, 204, 241 · Users Guide, pp. 8, 12–13 · Lunar Mobility Drivers and Needs, PDF pp. 1, 4 · Lunar Surface Cargo, p. 2