The focus of this paper is a preliminary study intended as the first phase in the development of a pressurized rover conceptual design. NSBE Space has concluded that pressurized rovers will be necessary for any large scale lunar presence. Rover missions include both local transportation between the lunar base and lunar landers as well as surface expeditions away from the base focused around scientific research or commercial industry activities. The paper provides a brief assessment of design concepts for rover vehicle systems. This rover is a traditional configuration of a pressure vessel mounted above a drive mechanism (Eckart, 1999), but is larger than many of the traditional concepts based on the MOSAP configuration, such as LUNOX (Joosten, 1994). Introduction Project Arusha is a research initiative of the Space Special Interest Group of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE Space). Its centerpiece is Moonbase Arusha, a conceptual design for a 48-person lunar facility, intended as an international government/commercial venture to be deployed in the timeframe after the NASA Exploration initiatives. Arusha is Kiswahili for “He makes fly (into the skies)”. Its purpose is to accelerate the commercial use of the Moon, in line with the provisions of the National Aeronautics and Space Act. This paper assumes a Moonbase Arusha configuration including six pressurized rovers, with rotating maintenance down periods, such that four rovers are available at any given time. A pressurized garage facility is assumed, allowing for major servicing of one rover and minor servicing for a second rover at any given time. The paper further assumes a satellite constellation providing constant line of sight communications throughout the maximum possible rover traverse ranges. Finally, the paper assumes that the lunar base includes docking ports where the pressurized rovers can dock with base elements, allowing pressurized transfer between the rover and the base. Launch Vehicle, Transfer Vehicle, and Lander With a mass of approximately 20,000 kg, the Arusha rovers will require a cargo lander with a payload capacity roughly on the upper end of viable LSAM variants. In particular, the LSAM concept proposed by Saucillo not only possesses the necessary payload capacity (24.5 tons), but also provides for efficient unloading due to its configuration, mounting the payload below the propellant tanks (Saucillo, 2005). Mission Operations The Mission Operations portion of the Arusha project will consist of three control centers: Dunia (Kiswahili for Earth), Mwezi (Kiswahili for Moon), and Jahazi (Kiswahili for Ship). Dunia, the Earth control center, will act as a back up to all operations. Mwezi, the Moonbase control center, will be the main center of all operations, and will receive Jahazi and Dunia data. Mwezi will handle data communications between Arusha and Earth (or other vehicles or bases). Jahazi, the rover control center, will be an internal system to each rover. This control center will not be as complex as the other two, but will communicate with Mwezi for high level command and control and perform some self-diagnostics and troubleshooting of the rover should the need arise. Dunia, Earth Mission Control Dunia will be equipped with workstations and communications infrastructure configured to receive data from Mwezi and send commands through Mwezi to Jahazi, if required. This will be the lead center of all operations, but Mwezi is the preferred control center for every day operations. The control center will house multiple workstations, each assigned to a particular system/function of the Mwezi center. Each workstation has the ability to command the systems that they monitor. Mwezi, Moon Mission Control Mwezi is the preferred control center of Moonbase Arusha. Dunia will be the backup to this control center should problems occur. All subsystems can be commanded/controlled from this location, including the rovers. Mwezi will be the ‘everyday’ center, responsible for executing missions, following flight schedules, and maintaining the rovers and facility. Though this is the preferred center of activity, Mwezi will be in nearly constant communication with Dunia. Subsystems on Mwezi will be mirrored on Dunia, thus the positions in Dunia will have Mwezi counterparts. Jahazi, Rover Onboard Mission Control Jahazi will be more of a micro-center located within each rover and is primarily autonomous with reconfigurable levels of crew oversight. The rover will be equipped with a high level form of artificial intelligence that will perform self-diagnostic and troubleshooting functions as well as send and receive information to and from Mwezi and other control centers. The crew will interface with Jahazi via the work stations in the forward section (described later). Jahazi operates on the network associated with the pressurized rover computer architecture discussed in the Computer Architecture section of this paper. Communications Currently, NASA is developing an integrated communication system for exploration incentives (Spearing, 2005). The system will extend from the near-Earth orbit to lunar orbit and beyond. The architecture includes low-rate/high-rate data and user links, relay links, and proximity links. It will provide continuous communication between the Earth and the Moon. To help facilitate this communications need, a new technology called software defined radio (SDR) is under consideration for implementation (Schier, 2005). SDRs are capable of meeting the changing requirements and specifications for various communication standards without changing the radio hardware. SDR technology will provide Arusha increased flexibility within the communication system without utilizing different radio hardware, which is a costeffective approach for meeting future requirements. Power, Drivetrain, & Mechanisms Power System The power needs for the pressurized rover will be handled by a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell power system. The electrical energy produced by the fuel cell stack(s) can be fed to the motor inverter directly. In some cases, it may be attractive to use a buffer system, such as a battery, super capacitor or fly wheel. The buffer will supply peak power. This may be needed during start-up, or during acceleration. The buffer can also be used to absorb energy during regenerative braking.