Designing and Flying the First University Lunar Rover

Authors: Raewyn Duvall, Siri Maley, Connor Colombo, Divya Rao, Nikolai Stefanov, Red Whittaker

Although it never got the chance to land on the Moon, Carnegie Mellon University's Iris Lunar Rover stands as a groundbreaking achievement, marking the first non-governmental, university-led lunar rover mission to journey to and drive in cislunar orbit. This paper offers a broad overview of Iris, focusing on its system design, development, testing, and mission execution, setting a precedent for future student-led planetary rover endeavors.

Lessons Learned

Authors: Siri Maley, Connor Colombo, Heather Jones, Divya Rao, Nikolai Stefanov, William Whittaker

Developing planetary rovers in a university differs from similar efforts in industry and government, as well as from orbital space programs (e.g. CubeSats) within universities. This paper examines Carnegie Mellon University’s multi-decadal lunar rover initiative for systems, project, personnel, and program management lessons learned. Lessons are derived from multiple flight and non-flight rover developments.

Conceiving, Modeling, and Nearly Implementing the Ejection and Maneuvering of a Nanorover During Lunar Transit to View Its Doomed Lander

Authors: Jeffery John, Siri Maley, Oleg Sapunkov, Carmyn Talento, Tejas Venkatesh, Sophia Zhao, Raewyn Duvall, Red Whittaker

The Carnegie Mellon Mission Control team conceived, modeled, and prepared to implement an imaginative deployment of the rover to image the lander. This operation, while not executed on Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One, could prove useful on future missions with jeopardized landers.