1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,800 Narrator: In one of the driest places on Earth, 2 00:00:03,820 --> 00:00:07,050 a NASA robot is searching for water. 3 00:00:07,070 --> 00:00:09,550 The Mojave Desert, in southern California, receives 4 00:00:09,570 --> 00:00:12,660 very little rain and the dry environment is very 5 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:16,540 similar to the surfaces of the Moon and Mars. 6 00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:18,610 However, there is enough underground moisture that 7 00:00:18,630 --> 00:00:20,490 the Mojave is an excellent lunar 8 00:00:20,510 --> 00:00:22,910 or Red Planet analog. 9 00:00:22,930 --> 00:00:26,290 Also, since the locations and quantities of that 10 00:00:26,310 --> 00:00:29,370 moisture are well-known to geologists, researchers 11 00:00:29,390 --> 00:00:31,420 are able to ground truth science instruments 12 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:35,280 by comparing their measurements to the actual amounts. 13 00:00:35,300 --> 00:00:38,780 The Mojave Volatiles Prospector, or MVP project, 14 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:41,050 is a test bed for scientists from NASA Ames 15 00:00:41,070 --> 00:00:43,720 Research Center to develop the technologies 16 00:00:43,740 --> 00:00:45,680 and procedures that will be needed to search 17 00:00:45,700 --> 00:00:48,610 for water ice and other volatiles that might 18 00:00:48,630 --> 00:00:51,020 be hidden under the surface of the Moon, Mars 19 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:54,210 or another planetary body. 20 00:00:54,230 --> 00:00:57,390 The foundation of the MVP project is a 4-wheel-drive, 21 00:00:57,410 --> 00:01:00,630 electric-powered robot, known as K-REX. 22 00:01:00,650 --> 00:01:04,280 About the size of golf cart, K-REX is designed to 23 00:01:04,300 --> 00:01:06,740 autonomously navigate rugged terrain, while 24 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:09,560 driving over obstacles as high as 12 inches 25 00:01:09,580 --> 00:01:13,150 and slopes as steep as 30 degrees. 26 00:01:13,170 --> 00:01:15,720 It has multiple cameras on-board, which are used by 27 00:01:15,740 --> 00:01:17,940 the rover's control system to navigate between 28 00:01:17,960 --> 00:01:20,820 waypoints and to provide real-time situational 29 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:24,940 awareness for the science team back at NASA Ames. 30 00:01:24,960 --> 00:01:28,480 To search for water, K-REX carried two instruments 31 00:01:28,500 --> 00:01:31,600 specifically selected for the MVP mission. 32 00:01:31,620 --> 00:01:34,340 The first was a Neutron Spectrometer System, 33 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:38,410 known as NSS, that scans for underground hydrogen. 34 00:01:38,430 --> 00:01:41,740 NSS measures changes in the energy of neutrons 35 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:45,510 that interact with hydrogen in the subsurface. 36 00:01:45,530 --> 00:01:49,900 If there is no hydrogen, those changes are not detected. 37 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:52,680 The second instrument was the Near-Infrared Volatile 38 00:01:52,700 --> 00:01:55,750 Spectrometer System, known as NIRVSS. 39 00:01:55,770 --> 00:01:58,940 NIRVSS measures light reflections from soil samples and 40 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:02,650 was used to calculate the amount of soil moisture. 41 00:02:02,670 --> 00:02:04,940 Data from the two instruments helped scientists 42 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:07,410 select locations where samples were collected 43 00:02:07,430 --> 00:02:09,780 for analysis. 44 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:12,210 For science planning and mission operations, 45 00:02:12,230 --> 00:02:14,720 the team used a software tool developed at Ames 46 00:02:14,740 --> 00:02:19,840 called the Exploration Ground Data System or xGDS. 47 00:02:19,860 --> 00:02:23,340 The MVP deployment was an opportunity to learn how 48 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,190 the web-based software tool works and where 49 00:02:26,210 --> 00:02:27,810 improvements are needed in order to conduct a 50 00:02:27,830 --> 00:02:29,970 high-tempo science mission with a rover 51 00:02:29,990 --> 00:02:32,910 in a remote location. 52 00:02:32,930 --> 00:02:36,180 Another goal of the MVP project was to answer the question 53 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:40,290 "How can NASA use a robot to prospect for resources on the 54 00:02:40,310 --> 00:02:44,330 Moon in a very short timeframe?" 55 00:02:44,350 --> 00:02:46,850 The Mojave Volatiles Prospector mission brought together 56 00:02:46,870 --> 00:02:49,960 a rugged robotic rover, unique prospecting instruments, 57 00:02:49,980 --> 00:02:53,270 a robust mission operations software package and 58 00:02:53,290 --> 00:02:57,870 a dedicated support team for a remote, live field test. 59 00:02:57,890 --> 00:03:00,590 The mission successfully demonstrated the concept of 60 00:03:00,610 --> 00:03:04,240 "high-tempo" robotic science and the MVP team 61 00:03:04,260 --> 00:03:07,930 stands ready to help develop an actual prospecting mission 62 00:03:07,950 --> 00:03:10,350 beyond Planet Earth.