AIRA (NASA Lunar TORCH)

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AIRA is a low-cost and feasible-technology Lunar TORCH for NASA.AIRA has 15.8 m² area for heliostat panel that consist of 13.9 m² reflecting area for redirecting sunlight, 1.2 m² photovoltaics area for electrical power, and 100 mm x 100 mm area for sun tracking sensor.The angular sweep of the heliostat panel is 180° on the polar angle and 360° on the azimuthal angle. The angular movement utilize the conventional slew drive mechanism.The deployment mechanism utilizes the hinge, spring, and latch concept with low-shock HDRM (Hold-Down and Release Mechanism). The folding section of the heliostat panel is kept as few as possible to minimize the application of hinge, spring, latch, and HDRM so that minimize the complexity which result on the lower cost.With low center of gravity and 1640 mm of wheelbase-wheel track, AIRA has maximum 40° for pitch and roll angle. Due to safety reason, the maximum tilt during operation is only 30°.The ground clearance of the rover is 400 mm with six 320 mm outside diameter wheels.The total mass of the system (rover + heliostat panel) is estimated to be maximum 410.3 kg.The detail mechanism videos of AIRA:Video 1 (Unit deployment simulation - Scene 1):https://youtu.be/U3th7p8m9LkVideo 2 (Unit deployment simulation - Scene 2):https://youtu.be/i2wOYiIJyCoVideo 3 (Rover arm deployment simulation):https://youtu.be/tRTbastRM7oVideo 4 (Differential bar mechanism simulation):https://youtu.be/UZMiAY8n2To