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Add lunar pole exploration simulation with realistic solar power #22

@RBinsonB

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@RBinsonB

This issue references space-ros/demos#36 opened in the demos repo.

There is no moon simulation in Space-ROS yet. A moon simulation could be added.

One subject of interest in particular is the exploration of the moon south pole region. Due to the presence of permanently shaded craters, there is a high chance of water ice being present and that could be used to establish a long lasting human presence on the moon (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/08/space-water-ice-moon-south-pole/).

The NASA VIPER rover mission aimed to explore this area. Unique challenges have to be addressed in this environment and would be interesting to simulate in Space-ROS. In particular the power generation and management:

  • Solar power being constantly available outside of shaded area
  • Solar power being unavailable while testing the presence of water ice in a shaded area
  • Solar panel placement to adapt to the sun low position on the horizon

Therefor a proposed approach could be to provide a Gazebo simulation with the following elements:

  • A fully controllable rover model with sensors, based as closed as possible on a real rover (VIPER)
  • A realistic Gazebo world, by using DEM data from NASA LRO mission
  • A plugin or set of plugin to simulate the power generation and consumption

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