Endurance is a mission concept for a long-range, highly autonomous lunar rover (Fig. 1) designed to explore the farside of the Moon and the largest and oldest (undisputed) impact crater in the Solar System: South Pole–Aitken basin (SPA) (Fig. 2). Endurance would traverse nearly 2,000 kilometers, acquiring a large volume of in situ data, and a large mass of samples (up to 100 kg of material from 12 sites), before rendezvousing with Artemis astronauts at the south pole of the Moon. The Endurance concept was developed during the recent Origins, Worlds, and Life Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey [1–2], which recommended Endurance as the highest priority new strategic mission for NASA’s Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program. Since the release of the Decadal Survey in 2022, NASA has been further studying this concept, and investigating the range of implementation options [3–5].
The Road to Endurance: Outcomes From the Endurance Science Workshop
55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference ; 2024 ; The Woodlands, TX, US
Conference paper
No indication
English
Full scale road simulated endurance test
Engineering Index Backfile | 1968
|Online Contents | 1997
Full Scale Road Simulated Endurance Test
SAE Technical Papers | 1968
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