The moon has been a lonely place, the last expedition there was in 1972, but interest is renewed again as both NASA and China are planning manned expeditions in the near future. Particularly of interest when it comes to our only natural satellite, is whether it contains any resources, and if so, how to reach them? To answer the question, NASA’s Swamp Works developed new drones to survey the moon for any deposits of raw materials, like iron or gold. These new devices have been built to explore the moon’s numerous craters, particularly any extinct volcanoes or lava tubes deeper below the crust – a growing interest to astronomers.
“We’re an innovations lab, so in everything we do, we try to come up with new solutions,” said Rob Mueller, a senior technologist from Swamp Works who was responsible for the design of the drones – hoping to find resources such as gold, silver, iron and copper on the moon as well as asteroids.
The drones were built to dive and fly in the gullies inaccessible by land rovers and are known as Extreme Access Flyers. In addition to raw materials, they’re also seeking out such resources as ice or water, which could provide sustenance to any colonies there in the near future. Because they are flying in uncharted areas, they are canvassing their way as they go along, and the length of their flight is considerably limited, compared to time spent flying over the Earth.
Using laser guidance functionalities, in addition to autonomous flight and even 3-D printing for creating a prototype, they have been built to resemble quadcopters. The drones may be equally useful on Earth, however, in activities like surveying volcanoes and other disaster areas, particularly areas affected with radiation.
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