Skylight is a concept study about accessing and exploring a lunar skylight. Lunar skylights are holes in the moon surface that most likely are collapsed roofs caves under the moon surface.
The study tries to find solutions to enter the skylight with a robots in order to explore the underlying cave. Which implies a lot of challenges to cover: How to get the exploring robot safely down, or how to communicate with earth from inside that cave (radio waves don't go through rock).
Our idea consists of two robots: One as an anchor and communication relay to earth and a second one to explore the cave. The exploring rover will be tethered down into the cave and deploys a docking and recharging station and then semi-autonomously explored the cavity without being attached to the tether cable. His collected data is send via the docking station.
Partners
Universität Bremen