Carnegie Mellon shows off "Scarab" lunar rover

It looks like the moon could soon become a relatively crowded place if even half of all these robots and rovers we keep hearing about actually get off the ground, the latest of which comes to us from Carnegie Mellon University. Dubbed the "Scarab," this four-wheeled bot is equipped with a Canadian-made drill capable of obtaining meter-long geological core samples, which its creators hope could turn up evidence of hydrogen, water or other recoverable resources. While it's appearance would suggest otherwise, the Scarab apparently won't be tearing up the lunar surface if and when it gets there, with it boasting a top speed of just four inches per second. On the upside, it will apparently be able to maneuver over rocky surfaces, and it can anchor itself to the ground to stay in place while drilling. While that would be enough for most folks to call it a day, it seems that project leader William "Red" Whittaker won't be resting on his lunar laurels, as he's also announced that he'll be assembling a team to compete for the Google Lunar X-Prize, which promises $20 million to anyone that can land a privately funded robot on the moon by 2012.

[Via The Raw Feed]

[Ron Smith @ Sep 21st 2007 1:49PM]

That should be lunar, not martian soil. Mars- martian, moon-lunar.

[kaztm @ Sep 21st 2007 3:05PM]

It's also possible that Engadget editors don't know the difference between the two planetary bodies.

[John @ Sep 21st 2007 1:49PM]

So is this going to the moon or is it going to Mars? I see references to the lunar surface and the Martian.

[SteveJ @ Sep 21st 2007 1:50PM]

Engadget has become Moon Rover central. Jeez. If I wanted to read about Moon Rovers I would go to MoonGadget.com. All you Moon-Rover-fanbois can go to hell to. I'm sticking with my Mars Rover.

[Ian H. @ Sep 21st 2007 4:42PM]

For your information, Engadget provides a moon-free feed as well as a space-free feed. Also, a moon- and space-free feed...

Thanks for that - you just made my day!

[seoultrain @ Sep 21st 2007 1:53PM]

okay, so I'm pretty clueless when it comes to lunar vehicles, but are they really that technologically advanced? They always come out looking like crappy, slow, stripped down R/C cars, and have nothing remotely impressive about them. Are the atmosphere-less conditions on the moon and mars really that harsh?

cut to Jeremy Clarkson: "How hard can it be?"

[JJ @ Sep 21st 2007 1:58PM]

They wouldn't be giving away '$20 million to anyone that can land a privately funded robot on the moon by 2012' if they could just send an R/C racer, would they?

[Gil @ Sep 21st 2007 2:01PM]

Radiation is the problem. If you send normal electronics up into space they're going to crash pretty fast. Cosmic radiation is pretty tricky so the added cost/difficulty is making the rover capable of withstanding it.

[seoultrain @ Sep 21st 2007 2:09PM]

thanks gil, didn't think of the radiation.

and JJ, obviously getting the robot to the moon is the hard part. My question was solely concerning the robot itself.

[theclar @ Sep 21st 2007 3:06PM]

Wouldn't temperature extremes be an issue too?

[Alan @ Sep 21st 2007 2:06PM]

One would think that the rover part would be the no-brainer aspect of of this contest. The getting to and landing part is really what this contest is about.

[Brad @ Sep 21st 2007 2:24PM]

Haven't read the rules in detail, but it seems like the cost effective thing to do would be for all the competitors to pool efforts on the big expensive rocket and landing module, then let the individual rovers compete from there once landed... It's not going to make the rocket any more complicated or expensive to carry 10 or 20 small rovers than it would be carry one. And it certainly beats twenty individually designed rockets careening through the stratosphere hoping half of them make it to the moon... You could even double up and have a spare ready "just in case" and still save money and effort.

[Craig @ Sep 21st 2007 2:09PM]

Good for the Scarab! I'm glad to see so much work being done on lunar robots. Sending robots to the moon makes a hell of a lot more sense to me than W's plan for sending humans back up there by 2015.

[kaztm @ Sep 21st 2007 3:09PM]

Scarabs are six-legged beetles. Was the design of this rover once used to be six-legged or six-wheeled?

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 21st 2007 3:54PM]

Good luck with that argument.

Re: VW Beetle, etc.

Creative license: Because creativity is ALWAYS in season!

[Matt E. @ Sep 21st 2007 5:26PM]

Humans need to be in space and dispersed as far as we can get. Period. End of story.

[Pauly @ Sep 21st 2007 2:14PM]

Red has been one of the heads at Carnegie Mellon Robotics for a while now. Check out the Jesus robots his colleagues have created. I hope he can win the prize.

http://www.robotliving.com/2007/07/20/jesus-robots/

[Jason @ Sep 21st 2007 2:26PM]

If you live in the vein of robotics like I do you, you would really appreciate all that "Red" has done. I am an undergraduate Mechanical Engineer at Carnegie Mellon, with a robotics minor, and I've been privileged to work under "Red" before, see "Darpa Grand Challenge". I am in the process of trying to join the Lunar Rover Team, so wish me luck! "Red" is the godfather of robotics, if anyone can accomplish this feat, "Red" can.

[Jason @ Sep 21st 2007 2:26PM]

Also, the project you linked too was not actually under the supervision of "Red", but of the Nanorobotics Laboratory.

http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/waterrunner/
http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/waterstrider/

Yea, we're pretty robot crazy here at CMU.

[Matt @ Sep 21st 2007 2:37PM]

Us Canadians are a drilling powerhouse.

[misterfred22 @ Sep 21st 2007 11:02PM]

I love that this is named after the total annihilation anti-nuke vehicle...