A mobile lidar scanner ? That’s how it is. NASA scientists and their industry partners have teamed up to design a remote sensing mapping system called the Kinematic Navigation and Cartography Knapsack (KNaCK) that is set to assist astronauts in exploring the South Pole of the Moon . according to a NASA statement.
“Essentially, the sensor is a topographical tool for both navigation and scientific mapping, capable of creating centimeter-accurate ultra-high-resolution 3D maps and giving them rich scientific context,” said Michael Zanetti, who leads the KnaCK project. at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, USA. “It will also help ensure the safety of astronauts and rover vehicles in a non-GPS environment like the Moon, by identifying true distances to faraway landmarks and showing explorers in real time how far they have traveled and how far is left to reach their destination. ” ”.
The mobile lidar system is a remote sensing scanner that measures distance by sensing light and ranging laser light. The idea is that it is used as if it were a hiking backpack , hence the “moon backpack” that uses an innovative type of LIDIAR called frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) lidar to offer Doppler speed and range for millions of data points per second. These measurement points generate a real-time navigation system, providing the explorer with a 3D “point cloud” or high-resolution representation of the surrounding environment.
Very useful for the Moon
Considering that the Sun never rises more than 3 degrees above the horizon on the Moon , it leaves much of the terrain in deep shadow; that makes distances to various points of interest difficult to observe. This is where the new mobile lidar scanner aims to help. It will create a 3D point cloud or high-resolution map of the surrounding terrain, essentially accurately mapping the topography of the landscape, including deep ravines, mountains, and caves.
“As human beings, we tend to orient ourselves based on landmarks: a specific building, a grove of trees,” Zanetti said. “Those things don’t exist on the Moon. KNaCK will continuously enable explorers traversing the surface to determine their movement, direction, and orientation to distant peaks or their home base. They can even mark specific sites where they found a unique mineral or rock formation, so others can easily return to study further.”
Miniaturize the hardware
At the moment, the lunar backpack prototype weighs about 18 kilos, so they are working on reducing the weight of this technology. The idea is that it should be small enough to mount on an astronaut’s helmet and not get in the way of their work.
Reference: KnaCK Project at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (United States).
