FASTER SPACE EU CONFERENCE February 2012

18/06/2016 In FASTER, a European consortium of six partners from five member states develops and demonstrates concepts for an efficient in situ acquisition of soil and terrain properties on planetary surfaces FASTER Forward Acquisition of Soil and Terrain for Exploration Rover

18/06/2016 FASTER  Robotics plays an essential role in the exploration of planetary surfaces and deep space. Acting as proxies for human exploration, robots provide the key basic functionalities for the scientific investigation of planetary surfaces: mobility between investigation sites, execution of specific tasks such as the deployment of scientific instruments, and relay of this data to Earth Forward Acquisition of Soil and Terrain for Exploration Rover  Future planetary exploration is calling for the traverse of vast and varied expanses of terrain Motivation for the FASTER Project

18/06/2016 Motivation for the FASTER Project FASTER Forward Acquisition of Soil and Terrain for Exploration Rover Currently, the robotic exploration of planetary surfaces is seriously impeded by the lack of detailed information about the soil and terrain conditions in the close vicinity of the exploration rover This lack of information leads to:  extremely slow and cautious exploration strategies (<5 cm/s)  rovers may get stuck and become temporarily or permanently immobile due to unforeseen terrain conditions The recent loss of the NASA Mars rover Spirit, as it became trapped in hidden soft sand, illustrates dramatically this scenario

18/06/2016 Motivation for the FASTER Project FASTER The FASTER project is dedicated to future planetary exploration and will develop novel and innovative concepts to perform in situ forward evaluation of soil properties and terrain conditions in the planned path of a planetary exploration rover Forward Acquisition of Soil and Terrain for Exploration Rover Addressing directly the needs of future missions, the FASTER project targets this critical issue of fast and safe traverse through unknown planetary surfaces

18/06/2016 General Objectives & Outcomes Objectives: The overall goal of the FASTER project is to address three key technology developments for planetary exploration:  Forward looking surface properties characterisation  Innovative locomotion system for a scout type rover  Collaborative operation of a mother / scout pair Outcomes:  The development of methods for the in situ evaluation of ground trafficability and scientific analysis of the terrain, leading to the development of soil probes  The development of a highly-mobile, all-terrain mini rover used to deploy the soil probe and scout the planned trajectory of the planetary exploration rover  The development of software to enable the robust co-operative and autonomous operation of one or several scout rovers and a main exploration rover (the ‘mother’ rover) FASTER Forward Acquisition of Soil and Terrain for Exploration Rover

18/06/2016 FASTER project FASTER Forward Acquisition of Soil and Terrain for Exploration Rover The technologies developed in FASTER project will:  be compatible with current developments at ESA and NASA  support and complement current and future EU and ESA space exploration projects

18/06/2016 FASTER Forward Acquisition of Soil and Terrain for Exploration Rover for more information visit:

18/06/2016 Thank you for your attention  DISSEMINATION LEADER Astri Polska Monika BANASZEK Bartycka 18a Warsaw P/F: +48 (22) / +48 (22)