Throwaway Rovers

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You say, "robot proof of concept?"

MikeD says, "soil samplers"

You say, "It has the regolith. Now what?"

MikeD says, "not sure about that, there's also the issue of whether we want deeper samples"

You say, "There's plenty of groups working on this project. Who could we try to recruit?"

MikeD says, "there's really not a whole lot more you can do with a robot on Luna at the moment other than sample soil and rocks"

MikeD says, "the robots should be capable of networking, perhaps have each one perform different experiments, also have some duplication so you can allow for errors and faults"

MikeD says, "there is one fixed requirement, since they need to be solar powered, they need to be able to move quickly so they can avail of the 2 week day, none of this 3m/day NASA BS"

You say, "Operating temperture"

MikeD says, "they need to be small, cheap and dispensible"

You say, "How cold does it get at night?"

MikeD says, "near absolute zero"

You say, "We need heating for two weeks"

MikeD says, "I don't expect them to survive a night"

MikeD says, "you're thinking like NASA"

You say, "Q: is there feasibility for a shelt... no that only provides protection at noon"

MikeD says, "small cheap dispensible and fast is the requirement"

MikeD says, "underground is on luna is thought to be fairly warm right the way thru, warm enough for water not to freeze"

MikeD says, "Ireland winter temps"

MikeD says, "thinking about freezing"

MikeD says, "but digging a shelter could take longer than it's worth"

MikeD says, "nope, make em small and fast and dispensible and cheap and drop a whole bunch of them all over the moon"

MikeD says, "don't even have to target their landings, just work on averages, a sort of brute force and ignorance method"

You hmm.

You say, "Need a landing system"

You say, "What do we call this. Maybe stuff this entire discussion on Lunarpedia as a draft?"

You say, "At least the techtnical parts"

You say, "Mike's pondering for a followup for the microwave project"

You say, "Mike ponders a throwaway rover design as a followup to the microwave project"

You say, "Multiple fast-moving autonomous and not meant to last the night"

You say, "oh, and very cheap"

cfrjlr says, "need somebody willing to do the work"

You say, "Given the profile, I believe they also will need to be lightweight to reduce mass"

You say, "for the launch"

You say, "Radio Shack sells or used to sell a $300 kit"

You say, "complication is where to do it where maybe we can have more than just one person"

You say, "tinkering on it"

You say, "That is an obvious point. Who do we have who feasibly can do a bunch of the work"

You say, "I'd assume that they'ad be able to ask for technical assistance"

You say, "so a garage, time, and the ability to wield a screwdriver and other tools"

MikeD says, "all the best people we have for that kind of work are somewhat isolated from the rest of the core"

You say, "The concept appeals to me greatly, but my health is a liability and I lack a garage"

MikeD says, "to be honest, I don't think a mere garage would be big enough once it got beyond the initial design stage."

You say, "True, maybe stages need to be worked out"

You say, "initial tinkering, then what?"

You say, "try to sell it to Phoenix, St Louis, Calgary, et c. to adopt it for the next step?"

MikeD says, "nah, initial tinkering would be only to find a suitable base unit to use"

MikeD says, "you're basically talking about roving laptops, old stripped down laptops in all probability"

You say, "Maybe, but that's too expensive"

You say, "Software needs to run on embedded hardware="

You say, "ARM processors or the like, maybe even cheaper"

You say, "I suppose that provides some division of labor that can handle long distances"

MikeD says, "not at all, I said _old_ there are laptops out there in near pristine condition that are basically too old to be useful to most normal computer users, but you could install a stripped down version of linux on them"

You say, "But they'll still be x86. If you put x86s in them it's a poor comparison to what we'd"

You say, "use for the actual mission"

MikeD says, "this is only for a cheap proof of concept James"

You say, "What clamshell or portable systems have internals that are good for ripping out and "

You say, "installing in a different setup?"

MikeD says, "ancient Dells come to mind"

MikeD says, "as long as it has a pcmcia slot it's up to the job"

MikeD says, "or better yet a usb port"

MikeD says, "the more modern built in wifi would actually be the worst option"

Strangelv wonders what the processing hardware in the Radio Shack kit consists of

MikeD says, "that's only the robot, that's going to use pic chips, you need something to control those"