By Angus Dalton
A robot that resembles a microwave mounted on salad-spinner wheels will be Australia’s first lunar rover, charged with analysing sticky alien soil to pave the way for human habitation on the moon.
The successful prototype, already dubbed “Roo-ver” by a public competition in 2023, was designed and built by ELO2, a consortium of industry players and universities that beat competitor AROSE for a $42 million grant from the Australian Space Agency.
The prototype of Australia’s first lunar rover, built and designed by the ELO2 consortium of organisations and universities.Credit: Australian Space Agency
Roo-ver will gather and analyse fine lunar soil, called regolith, as NASA prepares for the first crewed moon landing since 1972.
Water, oxygen, methane and other chemical components of the regolith could one day be stripped and repurposed into drinking water or rocket fuel for future moon-dwellers.
“We’re really excited to be awarded the opportunity to build Roo-ver and remotely operate it on behalf of Australia,” ELO2 consortium director Ben Sorensen, from Brisbane robotics company EPE Oceania, said.
ELO2 crafted four prototypes in 11 months. The latest iteration of the rover has been shocked and rattled to emulate the sheer force exerted by take-off and landing, and will be blasted by heat and radiation to ensure it’s fit for space.
“The moon is an absolutely extreme environment,” Sorensen said. “To get there, you’ve got to pass through the Van Allen belt, which is a high-ionising radiation experience for anything passing through.”
The Roo-ver prototype has also been tested in the University of Adelaide’s Extraterrestrial Environmental Simulation laboratory and is capable of operating in a vacuum.
“Interesting things happen in vacuum environments,” Sorensen said. “Tin grows whiskers. There’s vacuum welding; parts sitting next to each other can become joined.”
The suitcase-sized, semi-autonomous rover has large wheels built with blades that can dig into the fine regolith and traverse the unforgiving, low-gravity lunar surface.
“Regolith is a very fine substance. It’s 20 to 70 microns, roughly, and it’s very irregular, sharp and abrasive,” Sorensen said. “It’s also sticky, it’s got an electrostatic property to it. That’s extremely wearing on components.”
Roo-ver will fly to the moon this decade, said head of the Australian Space Agency Enrico Palermo, boosting activity and jobs in the space sector in the lead-up to launch.
“This is one of the most, if not the most, advanced robotic projects happening in our country,” Palermo said. “It is a big part of Australia’s commitment and contribution to the Artemis program.”
NASA’s Artemis III mission will deliver astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo. The long-term vision of the Artemis program includes establishing a permanent base camp on the moon.
Science and Industry Minister Ed Husic said the Roo-ver program’s tech advances will be applied to other areas of industry on Earth.
“Beyond this being an Aussie moonshot, the great thing about this is that it’s using our know-how – particularly in automation, robotics and advanced engineering. The things we learn up there on the moon we can bring back to strengthen Australian manufacturing.”
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