Design of the Scarab Rover for Mobility & Drilling in the Lunar Cold Traps

Scarab is a demonstration of a lunar rover design to explore polar cold traps for water ice as a potential resource. The envisioned mission scenario lands the rover on the floor of a permanently shadowed crater. The radioisotope powered rover then traverses kilometers in darkness, stopping to drill into the near subsurface and take data. The vehicle design employs a passive kinematic suspension with an active adjustability to lower for drilling and aid in driving. Scarab was designed and built in 2007 and is currently in lab and field testing and further development.