August 1, 2025 • 10 mins
In Episode 3 of our “From Apollo to Artemis” series, we break down the cutting-edge technologies powering NASA’s return to the Moon. From the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle to the advanced Artemis Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), discover how exploration has evolved with real-time science tools, autonomous navigation, and in-situ analysis.🚀 In this episode:
- Apollo vs. Artemis: rover tech across the decades
- Inside the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) design
- What AIRES and L‑MAPS reveal about the Moon
- Autonomous navigation, real-time data, and smart sensors
- How these upgrades support sustainable lunar exploration
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back. This is the third part of our discussion
and we're talking about the comparison of the artemists versus
the Apollop program. Well, if you lost the first two episodes,
get back on our YouTube channel or on our Spotify
channel or on our website at www. Dot spacing for
dot club for the previous articles and podcast episodes where
(00:23):
we talked about the selection by NASA of instruments for
the Armies not terrain vehicle, scientific instrumentation, very particular and
harsh condition for the landing on the Moon. So we
talked about science, we talked about operations, and now we
are going to make a comparison. We keep on with
the comparison we started in the part two of this talk,
(00:47):
and we're going to talk about the lending strategy we
mentioned in the last time, and we're going to compare
the data driven strategy for the selection of the landing
site using subtle I'm Madrid terrain modeling and also a
detection to be avoided for the contamination reasons we mentioned
(01:08):
last time during landing. While science and habitability over the
long term is going to be the priority now that
we're going to get back on the Moon, to stay there,
to leave their work there, while while the selection by
manually basically using the telescopes placed based on Earth and
(01:33):
a very very early prop data by the lunar orbiter
in the sixties and seventeen in the Apollo era, while
their safety and getting estras back safe on Earth to
what the priority science was, I would say only but
very very understandably. The second thing in well the whole picture.
(01:57):
For sure, you can imagine you're going to explore something
which is still unknown nowadays. Well, think about how unknown
the grade of the unknown it could be sixties years ago,
sixty years ago, this is it. Well, now let's talk
about we mentioned while the lunar because of the rovers
(02:20):
were commonly called nowadays, well, in the close future with
the Artemist program, probably they're going to have something like
fifty fifteen kilometers for extra vigor activities and maybe more,
we would say. The evolution of second, third, fourth generation
(02:40):
of the power sources for the navigation and for the
power supply of the rovers. Well, this is something that
you could be surprised off. But in the past they
had something like double the range for the rovers for
auple of fifteen seventeen sixteen, but they will well totally
(03:04):
human driven without the automation and assistance during driving. Also
the communication now for telemetry so vital parameters, but for
the humans of the extracts and also for the rovers
and the vehicles are basically real time. You also have
(03:26):
live video and also high bandwidth for scientific communication on
in situ or on the spot. And also almost it's
a new communication fromtamone back to Earth, so it's a
huge help in operation. While voice and also well you
(03:47):
guessed video were well, I would say very limited, and
also data storage was limited to they use the magnetic
tape and film. Off topic, go look for As a
Blood cameras. They were the first to fly and to
(04:09):
be on the Moon to take all those super famous photographs.
So As a Blood is a company which is still
working and selling amazing cameras nowadays, and go look at it.
And finally we can talk about sample handling. Well, the
only science that they could do was here back on Earth,
(04:32):
so they had to grab and bring back something like
almost four hundred kilograms of rock and regularly so grabbing
the samples, putting it on a lunar escaping model and
then fly it back together with the astrons and then
(04:54):
science was made by scientists here on the planet. Well
nowadays we all so also thanks to the evolution of
the instruments we mentioned in the first episode of this
conversation and the analysis technique and also the amazing, amazingly
(05:14):
wide range of communication possibility. They can also perform in
situ analysis of the samples that they find. So we
mentioned the communication possibilities. Everything is under an evolution, a
huge evolution of the technology. Well, think about the instruments
(05:35):
like iris, which is the spectrometers. The ass of the
world states for spectrometers came map the surface and the chemistry,
so the composition of the solids and also the volatiles
in the atmosphere is not a correct word, but above
the ground. Well in real time, think about what a
(06:01):
good analogy is a Geiger counter. Think about all the
movies where scientists and exports go around with the gage
counter detecting the radioactive particles. It's not the scientific correct world,
but gives an idea and this is flickering and making
(06:25):
noises when radioactivity is found. Well, a real time analysis
of this is well, go and make like undred times
this thing. You will have real time video, think about
like well a thermo camera imajory, well, something very similar,
but with the spectrometer. This is this gives you a scientific,
(06:52):
not correct idea, but a general idea of the amount
of data that can be processed text two technology in
real time and made in real time available to the
users who are the instaurants and to the scientists. While
nothing of these was available sixty years ago, while in
(07:14):
field mineralogical mapping relaid only on well the geological competencies
of restaurants also al maps, which is the second It's
what we mentioned in the first episode is a sort
of well radar I would say not a hundred percent
correctly under the cientific point of view, which can prove
(07:38):
several meters like forty meters underground and find the rock
composition and also water rise for example. This for sure
was not was not possible during the Apollo era, were
only sampling and also will very very weak filation of
(08:01):
the seismic profiles was possible, and also under the navigation
point of view. While the return vehicles which are being
designed nowadays and will be evolved in even farther in
the future, will benefit for sure, Yeah, from artificial intelligence
(08:21):
and advanced navigation techniques. Well some of them are already
available here on our planets, and some others will be
available in the future also on the Moon, and technology
that still we don't have nowadays. While well, if you're
a pilot, you probably know the difference between IFO and VFR,
(08:44):
so instrumental or visual flight rules and navigation. So what
BFR was the only world back sixty years ago, so
you guessed it. And yeah, Also these relatively relative ease
of operating allows longer direction missions, you perceive fatigue, you
(09:08):
get tired further in time, so you can perform your
activity longer, so longer can be also the extra recor
activities and also the missions, and also the use of
not only sources resources, but aleso the materials and the
(09:29):
vehicles and all the objects that you bring over there
for the first time can be reused and sustain operations
multiple times. While during the poler Era the rovers were
single use and also were abandoned on the surface. And yes,
(09:50):
so if you have any doubt about this kind of exploration,
you can get your telescope and directly look over there
on the surface and find some samples that have been
left behind. And yeah, you can take this like your
homework for today, because this was the last episode of
(10:13):
this very mini series. And please let me know in
the comment what you think. What you think we should
talk next time, and yeah, tell me what you think.
And maybe you still you still don't know that we
are debunking some popular mtes thinks that people think have
been invented and designed for space, but actually have a
(10:38):
real terrestrial origin. So they're a very interesting Tell me
if you want us to talk more about this, we
already started talking about the space Fax series. Go and
look on our website and also in the newsletter of
the space for Dot Club.
Welcome back. This is the third part of our discussion
and we're talking about the comparison of the artemists versus
the Apollop program. Well, if you lost the first two episodes,
get back on our YouTube channel or on our Spotify
channel or on our website at www. Dot spacing for
dot club for the previous articles and podcast episodes where
(00:23):
we talked about the selection by NASA of instruments for
the Armies not terrain vehicle, scientific instrumentation, very particular and
harsh condition for the landing on the Moon. So we
talked about science, we talked about operations, and now we
are going to make a comparison. We keep on with
the comparison we started in the part two of this talk,
(00:47):
and we're going to talk about the lending strategy we
mentioned in the last time, and we're going to compare
the data driven strategy for the selection of the landing
site using subtle I'm Madrid terrain modeling and also a
detection to be avoided for the contamination reasons we mentioned
(01:08):
last time during landing. While science and habitability over the
long term is going to be the priority now that
we're going to get back on the Moon, to stay there,
to leave their work there, while while the selection by
manually basically using the telescopes placed based on Earth and
(01:33):
a very very early prop data by the lunar orbiter
in the sixties and seventeen in the Apollo era, while
their safety and getting estras back safe on Earth to
what the priority science was, I would say only but
very very understandably. The second thing in well the whole picture.
(01:57):
For sure, you can imagine you're going to explore something
which is still unknown nowadays. Well, think about how unknown
the grade of the unknown it could be sixties years ago,
sixty years ago, this is it. Well, now let's talk
about we mentioned while the lunar because of the rovers
(02:20):
were commonly called nowadays, well, in the close future with
the Artemist program, probably they're going to have something like
fifty fifteen kilometers for extra vigor activities and maybe more,
we would say. The evolution of second, third, fourth generation
(02:40):
of the power sources for the navigation and for the
power supply of the rovers. Well, this is something that
you could be surprised off. But in the past they
had something like double the range for the rovers for
auple of fifteen seventeen sixteen, but they will well totally
(03:04):
human driven without the automation and assistance during driving. Also
the communication now for telemetry so vital parameters, but for
the humans of the extracts and also for the rovers
and the vehicles are basically real time. You also have
(03:26):
live video and also high bandwidth for scientific communication on
in situ or on the spot. And also almost it's
a new communication fromtamone back to Earth, so it's a
huge help in operation. While voice and also well you
(03:47):
guessed video were well, I would say very limited, and
also data storage was limited to they use the magnetic
tape and film. Off topic, go look for As a
Blood cameras. They were the first to fly and to
(04:09):
be on the Moon to take all those super famous photographs.
So As a Blood is a company which is still
working and selling amazing cameras nowadays, and go look at it.
And finally we can talk about sample handling. Well, the
only science that they could do was here back on Earth,
(04:32):
so they had to grab and bring back something like
almost four hundred kilograms of rock and regularly so grabbing
the samples, putting it on a lunar escaping model and
then fly it back together with the astrons and then
(04:54):
science was made by scientists here on the planet. Well
nowadays we all so also thanks to the evolution of
the instruments we mentioned in the first episode of this
conversation and the analysis technique and also the amazing, amazingly
(05:14):
wide range of communication possibility. They can also perform in
situ analysis of the samples that they find. So we
mentioned the communication possibilities. Everything is under an evolution, a
huge evolution of the technology. Well, think about the instruments
(05:35):
like iris, which is the spectrometers. The ass of the
world states for spectrometers came map the surface and the chemistry,
so the composition of the solids and also the volatiles
in the atmosphere is not a correct word, but above
the ground. Well in real time, think about what a
(06:01):
good analogy is a Geiger counter. Think about all the
movies where scientists and exports go around with the gage
counter detecting the radioactive particles. It's not the scientific correct world,
but gives an idea and this is flickering and making
(06:25):
noises when radioactivity is found. Well, a real time analysis
of this is well, go and make like undred times
this thing. You will have real time video, think about
like well a thermo camera imajory, well, something very similar,
but with the spectrometer. This is this gives you a scientific,
(06:52):
not correct idea, but a general idea of the amount
of data that can be processed text two technology in
real time and made in real time available to the
users who are the instaurants and to the scientists. While
nothing of these was available sixty years ago, while in
(07:14):
field mineralogical mapping relaid only on well the geological competencies
of restaurants also al maps, which is the second It's
what we mentioned in the first episode is a sort
of well radar I would say not a hundred percent
correctly under the cientific point of view, which can prove
(07:38):
several meters like forty meters underground and find the rock
composition and also water rise for example. This for sure
was not was not possible during the Apollo era, were
only sampling and also will very very weak filation of
(08:01):
the seismic profiles was possible, and also under the navigation
point of view. While the return vehicles which are being
designed nowadays and will be evolved in even farther in
the future, will benefit for sure, Yeah, from artificial intelligence
(08:21):
and advanced navigation techniques. Well some of them are already
available here on our planets, and some others will be
available in the future also on the Moon, and technology
that still we don't have nowadays. While well, if you're
a pilot, you probably know the difference between IFO and VFR,
(08:44):
so instrumental or visual flight rules and navigation. So what
BFR was the only world back sixty years ago, so
you guessed it. And yeah, Also these relatively relative ease
of operating allows longer direction missions, you perceive fatigue, you
(09:08):
get tired further in time, so you can perform your
activity longer, so longer can be also the extra recor
activities and also the missions, and also the use of
not only sources resources, but aleso the materials and the
(09:29):
vehicles and all the objects that you bring over there
for the first time can be reused and sustain operations
multiple times. While during the poler Era the rovers were
single use and also were abandoned on the surface. And yes,
(09:50):
so if you have any doubt about this kind of exploration,
you can get your telescope and directly look over there
on the surface and find some samples that have been
left behind. And yeah, you can take this like your
homework for today, because this was the last episode of
(10:13):
this very mini series. And please let me know in
the comment what you think. What you think we should
talk next time, and yeah, tell me what you think.
And maybe you still you still don't know that we
are debunking some popular mtes thinks that people think have
been invented and designed for space, but actually have a
(10:38):
real terrestrial origin. So they're a very interesting Tell me
if you want us to talk more about this, we
already started talking about the space Fax series. Go and
look on our website and also in the newsletter of
the space for Dot Club.
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