Surface Mobility on Ocean Worlds

Understanding the geology and determining the origins for Ocean World bodies like Europa and Enceladus are science goals defined in the Decadal Survey of 2013. Long range mobility at an appropriately selected site on the surface and with the requisite science instruments will address these goals. The challenges for mobility are rugged terrain, unknown and potentially soft regolith, extremely low temperature, and on Europa, possible corrosive materials and exposure to radiation. We have designed and prototyped a concept vehicle that can handle a wide range of topography and terra-mechanics conditions that we believe is needed for successful roving on ocean world bodies. The concept has been analyzed, optimized, simulated, and designed. The results from operating and testing the prototype are reported in this paper.