NASA’s newest Earth-bound rover recently completed testing on the Greenland ice sheet.
GROVER (Greenland Rover or Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research), is a solar-powered robot that carried a ground-penetrating radar to examine the layers of Greenland’s ice sheet.
The team began the robot’s tests in Greenland on May 8; which continued until June 8. While GROVER wasn’t facing conditions as severe as the Mars Rovers, it still had to operate in temperatures as low as minus 30 C.
“GROVER is just like a spacecraft but it has to operate on the ground,” said Michael Comberiate, manager of Goddard’s Engineering Boot Camp. “It has to survive unattended for months in a hostile environment, with just a few commands to interrogate it and find out its status and give it some directions for how to accommodate situations it finds itself in.”
Using GROVER reduces risk to researchers and is also cheaper than using the usual platforms – snowmobiles, aircraft or satellites.
The GROVER prototype stands nearly 2 metres tall with its solar panels and weighs around 360 kilograms. Energy is stored in an on-board battery pack. As it is powered entirely by the sun it can operate in pristine polar environments with minimal impact; i.e., no air pollution.
GROVER isn’t a speed machine – it travels at an average of 2 kilometres per hour; but as the sun never sinks below the horizon during the Arctic summer, GROVER’s working hours are extended. While the team were hoping GROVER would work around the clock during the Greenland tests, conditions impacted the robot’s electronics and energy consumption.
GROVER was originally developed in 2010 and 2011 by teams of students participating in summer engineering boot camps at Goddard.
The GROVER that spent time on the Greenland ice sheet is actually the second generation of the robot. GROVER 1 proved to be too heavy and cumbersome. GROVER 2 is far lighter, easier to assemble and disassemble. The second generation also works without the wind turbines of the first; making it a pure-play solar robot.
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