| Nasa wants to build a polar outpost on the Moon starting in 2020. The space agency is partnering CMU Robotics Institute and Astrobotic Technology to prepare a NASA-sponsored study describing a lunar outpost constructed by robots. The research examined two potential solutions: 1) construction of a berm around the landing site, and 2) creation of a hard-surface landing pad using indigenous materials. The first solution, two rovers weighing 330 pounds each would take less than six months to build a berm(8.5 feet tall in a 160-foot semi-circle) around a landing site to block the sandblasting effect. In the second solution, researchers showed how small robots could comb the lunar soil for rocks, gathering them to pave a durable grit-free landing pad. |
