Multi-Tier Exploration Concept Demonstration Mission

Abstract

A multi-tier, multi-craft mission architecture has been proposed but, despite its apparent promise, limited use and testing of the architecture has been conducted. This paper proposes and details a mission concept and its implementation for testing this architecture in the terrestrial environment. It is expected that this testing will allow significant refinement of the proposed architecture as well as providing data on its suitability for use in both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial applications. Logistical and technical challenges with this testing are discussed. I. MAJOR HEADINGS Fink [1, 2] and others [3, 4] have proposed the use of teams of multiple robots in the exploration of planets and for other applications. These multi-robot teams could (and it would seem, generally, would) include robots of various configurations. Under Fink’s concept, robots would be separated in to tiers based on their scope of influence. Specifically, orbital, flying and ground-based tiers are defined. Each tier would exert influence over tiers of lesser range by selecting points of