Autonomous Mapping and Characterization of Terrestrial Lava Caves Using Quadruped Robots: Preparing for a Mission to a Planetary Cave

Abstract

Subsurface voids on the Moon and Mars are attractive targets for exploration, for potential human use, and, in the case of Mars, for the search for evidence of extant or past life. Orbiting satellite data have been used to identify more than a thousand candidate cave entrances on each of these planetary bodies. While planetary cave access has many challenges, rapidly evolving technologies will soon make the concept of a mission to one of these caves feasible rather than an imagining of science fiction. Here, we present results of robotic exercises from ongoing field deployments to a volcanic cave, a terrestrial analog for planetary lava tubes. The motivation for this work derives from the NASA BRAILLE PSTAR project. The capabilities tested and described have been developed over the past three years by JPL’s CoSTAR Team, winners of the second phase of the current DARPA SubT Challenge.