First drive of the rovers in the LUNA hall

Following successful outdoor tests in the car park next to the Microgravity User Support Centre (MUSC), the two HiverR rovers have made their firstcautious drive-out inside LUNA. The rovers – developed by NEUROSPACE GmbH (Berlin) – are based on a CubeSat design, have an overall size of 45x35x30 cm3 and currently allow apayload volume of 3U (30x10x10 cm3).

The aim of the tests carried out was to determine the signal ranges in the LUNA hall between the vehicles and their communication node. 

Both rovers were controlled by members of the LUNA team, who drove them around the entire hall area. As both rovers are equipped with cameras, they could be navigated safely through the large hall even without direct visual contact by their drivers. ‘Fall’ and ‘Winter’ – the names of the two rovers – completed their first test drive with flying colours.

The collected test results will now be used to optimise communication with the vehicles within the hall.