Photo: Intuitive Machines
CADRE is an acronym that stands for Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Explorers, an umbrella term for a series of robots currently being developed with a single goal in mind: roam the surface of the Moon and make a 3D map of the place.
CADRE recently came under the spotlight after NASA announced it is presently testing them in the Simulated Lunar Operations lab (SLOPE), trying to see how the wheels that would allow the rovers to move can cope with the challenges posed by lunar regolith.
At that time (which was the beginning of this month), NASA vaguely said the robots will be heading for the Moon sometime over the next five years. We now know that’s actually closer than expected, and the first CADRE should fly in 2024.
The company chosen by the space agency for this task is Intuitive Machines, a relatively young space exploration company (it was born in 2013) that is already involved with other big names of the industry in big projects – for instance, it is working with Northrop Grumman and several others on the development of a new lunar rover capable of carrying humans.
As per the $77.5 million contract awarded by NASA, Intuitive Machines will have to launch, fly and land on the Moon a mission in 2024, carrying with it the CADRE robots, but also a host of other experiments, including a joint lander and rover called Lunar Vertex, the MoonLIGHT laser retroreflector, and a pair of solid-state telescopes made in Korea and called Lunar Space Environment Monitor (LUSEM).
Back to CADRE, these robots could prove essential in the future human habitation of the Moon. Using measurement tools, cameras, and a Sun sensor, the robots should be capable of exploring the rock and providing future missions with better maps of the terrain there.
At that time (which was the beginning of this month), NASA vaguely said the robots will be heading for the Moon sometime over the next five years. We now know that’s actually closer than expected, and the first CADRE should fly in 2024.
The company chosen by the space agency for this task is Intuitive Machines, a relatively young space exploration company (it was born in 2013) that is already involved with other big names of the industry in big projects – for instance, it is working with Northrop Grumman and several others on the development of a new lunar rover capable of carrying humans.
As per the $77.5 million contract awarded by NASA, Intuitive Machines will have to launch, fly and land on the Moon a mission in 2024, carrying with it the CADRE robots, but also a host of other experiments, including a joint lander and rover called Lunar Vertex, the MoonLIGHT laser retroreflector, and a pair of solid-state telescopes made in Korea and called Lunar Space Environment Monitor (LUSEM).
Back to CADRE, these robots could prove essential in the future human habitation of the Moon. Using measurement tools, cameras, and a Sun sensor, the robots should be capable of exploring the rock and providing future missions with better maps of the terrain there.
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