Mini Lunar Rover CADRE Undergoes Testing In JPL's Mars Yard

At the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, a development rover for NASA's CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) technology demonstration will make its maiden autonomous drive across the Mars Yard in June 2023. Graduate student intern Natalie Deo and JPL CADRE verification and validation lead Sawyer Brooks are shown behind the rover under a cover. Among other features of the project, the CADRE team successfully tested a new wheel design, surface navigation software, and mobility capabilities.

The rover being tested resembles the CADRE rovers that are currently being constructed in terms of size and look. As a part of NASA's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) effort, CADRE is scheduled to reach the Moon in the spring of 2024. It is intended to show how many robots may work together and explore together independently - without direct input from human mission controllers.

Three of the tiny, carry-on suitcase-sized solar-powered rovers will explore the Moon together while communicating on the radio to a base station on a lunar lander and each other. CADRE will also show how multirobot missions may collect data that is hard for a single robot to obtain by taking measurements simultaneously from several places, opening up exciting possibilities for future missions.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech