Summary

Description

Honeybee Robotics therefore proposed to develop a software tool for facilitating prospecting and excavation system trades in support of selecting an optimal architecture for the Moon. The tool could serve as a starting platform for excavation software for Mars or asteroids. The tool will provide engineers with the ability to quickly examine "What if?" scenarios within a trade space by specifying a surface system architecture (e.g. lander or rover based, digging for ice or building burms) and receiving reliable data and graphs evaluating that architecture's performance in terms relevant metrics, such as total energy used or total duration. The proposed software aims to be (a) user friendly, (b) relevant to NASA excavation priorities (xPRP: digging icy regolith for ISRU or LSS: outpost preparation), and (c) accurate for lunar excavation (equations verified by testing in relevant environment and scaled for gravity).