Intercontinental rovers servicing automated solar-powered Rodriguez Wells can supply water for Human Exploration on Mars. This paper describes a solar-powered multi-vehicle concept that can turn water resources obtained from mid-latitude glacier ice into a sustained water supply. A robotic drilling platform is proposed that can access relatively pure water ice in mid-latitude Martian glaciers through 1–10m of loose regolith, whereupon long-distance tanker rovers continually traverse terrain between the drilling operation and human outposts located in Mars equatorial zones. Robotically deployed solar-thermal panels will be able to passively heat warm water that is delivered into a Rodriguez Well (a melted cavity in an expanse of water ice such as a glacier). Newly melted water will be pumped up out of the well and cycled through the solar panels to fill tankers. The tankers will consist of multiple four-wheeled linked cars in a tram-like configuration that can overcome steep terrain and obstacles. The system will be able to deliver its own landed mass of water to the human explorers every ∼74 Mars days. The resources, power, vehicle configurations, and detailed functions are described.


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    Title :

    Robotic infrastructure for Mars outpost water supply


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2018-03-01


    Size :

    5933249 byte




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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