NASA's Moon-bound CADRE rovers roll toward launch

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California recently finished assembling a trio of small Moon-bound rovers that will explore the lunar surface to demonstrate their ability to drive as a team autonomously without direct input from human mission controllers.

The small robots, each about the size of a carry-on suitcase, underwent a punishing series of tests to ensure they'll survive their jarring rocket ride into space and their travels in the extreme lunar environment.

"Engineers have put in long hours test-driving rovers and working out bugs to finish the hardware, get it through testing, and prepare it for integration with the lander," NASA said in a statement on Thursday.

The multi-robot mission is part of a NASA technology demonstration called CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration). The solar-powered rovers and associated hardware will be installed on a lander headed for the Reiner Gamma region of the Moon. The robots will spend the daylight hours of a lunar day - equal to about 14 days on Earth - conducting experiments by autonomously exploring, mapping, and using ground-penetrating radar that will peer below the lunar surface.

The key goal of this mission is to show the ability of a group of robotic spacecraft to work together to accomplish tasks and record data as a team without explicit commands from mission controllers on Earth. The mission's success could pave the way for future explorations to employ robotic teams for simultaneous scientific measurements, offering invaluable support to astronauts.

"We have been in overdrive getting this tech demo ready for its lunar adventure. It's been months of nearly round-the-clock testing and sometimes re-testing, but the team's hard work is paying off. Now we know these rovers are ready to show what a team of little space robots can accomplish together," said Subha Comandur, CADRE project manager at JPL.