Late start, big hope

The 12-strong Selenokhod team joined the Lunar X Prize competition in September this year, more than a year-and-a-half after the initial ten participants were registered. Despite the late start, team members are optimistic about their chances to beat competitors from the United States, Europe, China, India, and other parts of the world.

Some teams are already trying to concept proof their designs, like the Romanians from ARCA, who tried to test their balloon-launched multiple stage rocket on November 16. But most are at the design and construction stages now, and the outcome of the race is far from certain.

The Russian team has decided to focus on the rover and outsource its delivery to the Moon. The prime candidate to blast the payload off into the Earth orbit is the joint Russian-Ukrainian rocket “Dnepr” – a civilian version of the SS-18 Satan ICBM, available for commercial launches. Contractors to build the lander and the transfer module, which will deliver the lander and two rovers onboard to the moon, and are yet to be decided upon.

Designs of moon-faring robots in the competition are many, with some unconventional ones including a mini-rocket to fly above the surface, a diwheel vehicle (or dicycle) bracketing the main hull of the rover, and a modular train. Selenokhod uses a more conventional scheme deriving from soviet Moon exploration program of the 1970s.

Classic design, minimalist approach

The Selenokhod rover is a small 30cm-long platform with four independent wheels and a mast carrying three HD cameras and an omnidirectional radio antenna. It has a small weight budget of just 5 kg to minimize delivery cost, so designers will fit only must-have components to it.

With its small size it will be very sensitive to bumps on the ground. To prevent it from tripping over, its radiation-protected on-board computer will carefully choose travel path using a 3D model of terrain generated from stereo images taken by the rover’s navigational cameras.

The operator on Earth will use the same visual feedback to track the rover and take direct control to traverse most difficult sections. Controlling the rover directly all the time is not an option due to the 2.5 second lag in transmission between the Moon and Earth. The planned scheme is meant to save some time and boost the rover’s overall speed a little.

Two rovers will be on a mission to the Moon, with one serving as a back-up vehicle and a radio relay if the need arises. The team plans to meet competition’s requirements during the Moon day, which is 14 Earth days long, and then try to survive the night. The plan is to move rovers back to the lander before the dark and cold come and put them into hibernation. Another option is to use components resistant to low-temperatures rather than keeping the robots warm on the lander.

In addition to delivering the rovers, the lander module will provide communication with Earth.

Media attention presumed

Choosing the landing site is a challenge in itself for all teams, and technical convenience will have to balance against media appeal. One obvious attractive spot is the Sea of Tranquility, the place of first human landing on Moon. Another is the eastern part of the Sea of Serenity, where both American Apollo 17 and Soviet Luna-21 missions landed just hundreds of meters apart. In addition to thrilling visuals, the spots would win a team bonus for finding human artifacts on the Moon.

Publicity is one of the prime points in the Lunar X Prize. The competition is meant to spur interest in space exploration and show that it does not need to involve billions in spending of the national budget.

Participating teams take inspiration in the example of Elon Musk, founder of the SpaceX, which created the world’s first privately developed low orbit launch vehicle, the Falcon 1. The firm conveniently offers a discount to participants of the competition if they opt for their rocket.

But the prize money and sponsor contracts are not the only commercial incentives for the teams. There is an obvious trend towards a shift of space exploration into the private sector. NASA sees the use of private contractors as a strategic direction for some of its programs, like the delivery of payloads to the International Space Station. If the plan proves successful, other national space agencies may follow that way too.

Regardless of the outcome, companies with past experience will have an advantage in the emerging multibillion markets, so even those unsuccessful in the Lunar X Prize will be ahead of future competition due to their efforts. At least that is what the Selenokhod team say, promising to keep the project afloat, even if some other team scores the prize first.

And of course there is the matter of prestige too. For Russian space specialists, winning the private lunar race after losing the state-funded one would be a matter of national pride. Team engineers are adamant that the Selenokhod project is technically feasible. The only obstacle is getting funding for it.

Alexandre Antonov, RT

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