
small rover.big mission.
MoonRanger is the size of a suitcase and weighs about seven pounds when it is on the moon. It is too small to carry a radio to reach Earth, so exploration must be completely autonomous once it is out of range of its lander. While exploring it senses terrain, navigates, estimates its location, builds maps, and measures the concentration of hydrogen proportional to the water that underlies its route.
MoonRanger will search for ice. If ice is sufficiently concentrated, and if its water can be processed, water becomes the key resource for living and working on the moon. Humans can drink the water, grow food with it, and breathe the oxygen derived from it. Hydrogen and oxygen from the water can power fuel cells to produce electricity. The hydrogen and oxygen are also rocket propellants for exploring beyond the Moon and shuttling back to Earth.
MoonRanger is the size of a suitcase and weighs about seven pounds when it is on the moon. It is too small to carry a radio to reach Earth, so exploration must be completely autonomous once it is out of range of its lander. While exploring it senses terrain, navigates, estimates its location, builds maps, and measures the concentration of hydrogen proportional to the water that underlies its route.
MoonRanger will search for ice. If ice is sufficiently concentrated, and if its water can be processed, water becomes the key resource for living and working on the moon. Humans can drink the water, grow food with it, and breathe the oxygen derived from it. Hydrogen and oxygen from the water can power fuel cells to produce electricity. The hydrogen and oxygen are also rocket propellants for exploring beyond the Moon and shuttling back to Earth.
MoonRanger has self-sufficient power, electronics, thermal regulation, navigation, and autonomy.
The Team
MoonRanger is pioneering a class of high-performance micro rovers that will contribute immensely to planetary exploration and enterprise. It will push the boundaries of miniaturization, autonomy, and operation in darkness and be the first to rove a lunar pole.

Pushing
Boundaries
The challenges of miniaturization and automation for the pole are profound.
MoonRanger pushes boundaries of miniaturization, autonomy, high performance computing, perception in brilliance and darkness, and energetics. The essential mobility, electronics and sensing are profoundly challenging at such small scale. Even reaching the Moon is a challenge for MoonRanger since it rides under, not within or atop its lander. Robot thermal regulation is difficult because the pole presents extremes of cold and hot, and a small rover has so little thermal mass to moderate the rate of its heating and cooling. To succeed in its short mission, MoonRanger has to stay on the move to achieve a high average speed unprecedented for a small rover. Beyond technical virtuosity, MoonRanger pushed boundaries of swift development, economy and innovation -- and did so from a university.
