When the Ingenuity drone arrived on the surface of Mars, its primary mission was to confirm whether we could conduct a controlled flight above the surface of another planet, in a thin atmosphere and with a gravity different from that of Earth. The optimistic version assumed a maximum of 5 trips (each more and more complex) within 30 days. The results of this experiment exceeded the expectations of the drone's creators. The device made more than seventy flights over three years, without making any effort. Meanwhile, NASA has begun work on another slightly larger Mars drone.
However, not all technologies can be used everywhere. The Ingenuity drone on Mars had to encounter an atmosphere a hundred times thinner than Earth's. For this reason, engineers had to equip it with fast-spinning rotors and keep its weight to a minimum. However, in the case of lunar exploration, no drone will be able to handle it. Rotating blades, no matter how big they are and how fast they rotate, will have nothing to compress. Are we doomed to explore the Moon only with rovers?
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Nothing could be further from the truth! Engineers from the Polish company Astronika As part of a contract commissioned by the European Space Agency, they are building the first “lunar jumper”. Since you can't fly over the moon's surface, you can always hop and jump on the moon's surface like the astronauts during the Apollo missions.
The ability to bounce off the surface of the Silver Globe, rise to a height of up to three meters and then freely fall towards the surface will make such a “jumper” able to easily overcome all obstacles that would pose an insurmountable problem for a typical rover. Considering that there are no streets or even paved roads on the moon, the ability to overcome obstacles and jump over smaller rocks is a huge advantage for any device of this type.
At the beginning of March, Astronica representatives presented the final mechanism for one of the jumper's legs at the European Space Research and Technology Center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
The mass of the entire target device will be approximately 10 kilograms. This is not a lot, but we must remember that the Ingenuity drone, which is very capable of exploring the surface of Mars, weighs only 1.8 kg. Therefore, Astronica engineers have a lot of “scope” to create a revolutionary robotic lunar explorer.
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Scientists point out another aspect of a possible parachuting mission on the Moon: even if such a device after the jump gets stuck in a crevice from which it will not be able to get out, the mission will still be successful. No matter how you look at it, all of the missions performed so far, due to restrictions on rovers' movement, have been carried out in relatively flat, drivable terrain. These are typically the smallest terrains on the Moon. However, it will be possible to send the skydiver to more difficult terrain, where he will be able to examine rocks and structures from a completely different stage of the history of our planetary system.
Given that it will be equipped with cameras and instruments capable of examining the chemical composition of lunar dust, or with spectrometers, we may soon be using them to gain entirely new information about — whichever way you look at it — our closest global neighbors. space.
It is also worth paying attention to another very important fact. In the future, later versions of the jumper could also be used to study Mars, asteroids, moons of gas planets, and dwarf planets. Therefore, it has the potential to be a very interesting and developmental project.
The jumper's designers hope that the European Space Agency will soon commission the construction of a full-scale jumper that could actually be used on one of the future lunar missions.
Echo Richards embodies a personality that is a delightful contradiction: a humble musicaholic who never brags about her expansive knowledge of both classic and contemporary tunes. Infuriatingly modest, one would never know from a mere conversation how deeply entrenched she is in the world of music. This passion seamlessly translates into her problem-solving skills, with Echo often drawing inspiration from melodies and rhythms. A voracious reader, she dives deep into literature, using stories to influence her own hardcore writing. Her spirited advocacy for alcohol isn’t about mere indulgence, but about celebrating life’s poignant moments.
