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Launch Year: 2010
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October 2007-January 2009
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November 2005-October 2006
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2004
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2003-04
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1999-2001
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2006
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1996
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2009
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CLIENT_
Thales Alenia Space (www.thalesgroup.com/space); European Space Agency (www.esa.int) |
PROJECT CREDIT_
E2O Corporate Partner: LIQUIFER Systems Group (www.liquifer.at) |
PROJECT TEAM_
Barbara Imhof, Norbert Frischauf, Sandra Häuplik-Meusburger, Waltraut Hoheneder, Susmita Mohanty, Kürsad Özdemir, Stephen Ransom, René Waclavicek. |
PROJECT SCOPE_
Future manned space missions to the Moon or to Mars will require a vehicle for transporting astronauts in a controlled and protected environment and in relative comfort during surface traverses of these planetary bodies. The vehicle that will be needed is a pressurized rover, which serves the astronauts as a habitat, a refuge and a research laboratory-cum-workshop.
A number of basic issues influencing the design of such a rover, e.g. habitability, human-machine interfaces, safety, dust mitigation, interplanetary contamination and radiation protection, were analysed in detail. The results of these analyses were subsequently used in an investigation of various designs for a rover suitable for surface exploration, from which a single concept was developed that satisfied scientific as well as environmental requirements encountered during surface exploration of the Moon and Mars. This concept was named ‘RAMA’ in honour of the late science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clark, and his Rama Chronicles.
RAMA meets the scientific and operational requirements defined during the top-level Surface Architecture Study conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2008. It is designed for surface missions with a crew of two or three lasting up to approximately 40 days, its source of energy, a liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen fuel cell, allowing it to be driven and operated during the day as well as the night. Guidance, navigation and obstacle avoidance systems are foreseen as standard equipment to allow it to travel safely over rough terrain at all times of the day. The rover allows for Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) and a remote manipulator is provided to recover surface samples, to deploy surface instruments and equipment and, in general, to assist the astronauts’ field activities wherever and whenever needed. The vehicle has also been designed to have a very high degree of manoeuvrability. In addition, RAMA may be operated and replenished from a fixed site base or co-operate with other rovers of the same type to provide a mobile base. The rover in all cases will be refuelled using the products supplied by an in-situ resources facility. |
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