Bofffins claim lunar manipulator is tougher than a Terminator
NASA is testing a new robotic arm that could revolutionize exoplanetary science for a reason most of us have probably never even considered: It doesn’t need to be kept warm in order to work.
The Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm, or COLDArm, is being designed to operate on the south pole of the Moon, a focus of future lunar research and where future Artemis missions are expected to touchdown at some point this decade.
One problem: the Moon’s South Pole gets colder than the surface of Mars, NASA said. NASA’s current generation of landers and rovers all rely on onboard heaters to keep lubricant warm, parts moving, and motor controllers functional, and the bitter -280°F (-173°C) temperatures of the polar lunar night are simply too cold for such equipment to keep up.
The two-meter long COLDArm doesn’t need to be kept as warm thanks to a combination of better materials, cold-resistant components and smarter tech. The result is a machine NASA said can cut two hours of preheat time off operations and could reduce daily energy consumption by up to 30 percent.
«COLDArm would let missions continue working and conducting science even in extreme cryogenic environments,» said project principal investigator Ryan McCormick.
