Robotic Mobility, Manipulation, and Sampling

The NASA Planetary Science Decadal Survey for the 2023-2032 decade identifies missions to solar system bodies, including to comets, asteroids, Ceres, Mars, Earth's Moon and ocean worlds, which require new mobility, manipulation, and sampling technologies. This call also prioritizes technologies enabling Moon-to-Mars missions. Component technologies for low-mass and low-power systems tolerant to the in situ environment (e.g., temperature, radiation, dust) are of particular interest. Mobility systems will provide surface, aerial, and subsurface access to sites of interest. Surface mobility will include long-range day and night driving access to scientifically important terrains. Manipulation technologies are needed to deploy sampling tools to the surface and transfer samples to in situ instruments and sample storage containers. Sampling systems are needed to acquire samples. Minimization of mass and energy, adherence to strict contamination control requirements, and the ability to work reliably in a harsh mission environment are important characteristics for the systems.