A Concept for Robotic Lunar South Pole Exploration

The lunar south pole region may contain frozen volatiles such as water and carbon dioxide in surface depressions which are permanently dark. The low Sun angles of the region create these permanently dark areas and also provide nearby regions of long term sunlight and moderate temperatures which benefit robotic exploration. In this paper a concept for a robotic explorer named Icebreaker is presented. It is designed to take advantage of the south pole environment and to find and analyze frozen volatiles. Icebreaker is an innovative new spacecraft concept which combines the functionality of traditional landing craft and mobile robots into one integrated vehicle. This type of vehicle will allow larger science packages to be delivered to the planets. Icebreaker will acquire samples with a drill and determine the presence and composition of volatiles inside cold traps using a Regolith Evolved Gas Analyzer (REGA).