The Caves and Canyons of Mars: Charting Optimal Roads Using the Eskey System
Syndicated from the November 2023 Astrogator, the monthly newsletter of the Grand Strand Astronomers
Reloquence, Inc. has completed the first maps of the first lunar roads under contract with FiOR Innovations, a US-based mapping company. We have charted three inaugural roads, and are currently working on a poster suitable for hanging on the wall.
Our next step is to chart the inaugural roads on Mars, demonstrating the general applicability of the Eskey System, the first planetary address framework to include a system of roads. Using our proposed standard, we will consider planetary geomorphology to create optimal networks of travel for resource acquisition, exploration and colonization.
Imagine an effort that sends robotics rovers ahead of manned missions to lay down rover tracks; astronauts could later follow the roads, allowing them to go faster and farther more safely. It's similar in concept to how humans used the earliest roads; they followed animal tracks.
How many miles of planetary roads would we need on the Moon and Mars? I’ve estimated ~190K miles of roads on the Moon and ~280K miles on Mars. On Earth, roadbotics companies provide a service to governments around the world to objectively manage their road networks using artificial intelligence. In space, roadbotics might include autonomous rovers that are better, faster and cheaper with only one purpose: to leave their tracks for future explorers. Some of the Mars rovers leave their names in the tracks. In Figure 1, holes in Curiosity’s tire treads spell out JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in Morse code.
Figure 1: Curiosity’s tire treads spell out JPL in Morse code
A space logistics platform could coordinate roadbots from many different space agencies around the world, similar in concept to how Uber coordinates rides and ride sharing across multiple drivers, thereby minimizing the cost per passenger. As a symbol of peace, the rovers could spell out the names of the roads in the tire treads in many different languages. As of 2023, 74 different government space agencies are in existence, including 68 national space agencies and six international agencies.
I have taken some time to explore the legal implications of the planetary roads in the context of United Nations (UN) outer space treaties, and have concluded that they may fall into a gray area based on recent US legislation that has legalized the ownership of natural resources on the Moon. In the same way that natural resources are not land, so too the roads are not land.
“Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
Power, communication and terrain are three factors that must be considered in planning a rover traverse. What is the optimal approach to charting the planetary roads on a map? In the simplest use case, a low slope route will suffice with slopes of 15 degrees or less, avoiding steep craters and steep cliffs, while optimizing for speed. A map that charts the low slope routes from a set of candidate landing sites on Mars would be beneficial, but will not cover every use case.
Figure 2: Curiosity cuts through the canyons using multiple candidate routes near Mount Sharp on Mars
In the example of a canyon, shown in Figure 2, the width of the passage will constrain the possible routes. Temperature and illumination are two other factors to consider in choosing an optimal landing site. Communication delays between the rovers and the mission controllers on Earth slow them down, sometimes to the point of being impractical from the standpoint of laying a network of rover tracks. On Mars, the rovers have a maximum speed of about .1 mph, and can operate in three modes: autonomous using AutoNav, controlled via data passing back and forth between Mars and Earth, and blind. Although blind is the fastest mode, it is also the most dangerous. One possibility would be to add a fourth mode that is a blend between blind and some initial set of good candidate routes, while optimizing for speed.
I have focused on two use cases for Mars: the canyons and the caves. The caves are perhaps the highest priority because the earliest explorers would benefit most from a network of rover tracks leading to their openings, viewable from space. The caves are possible shelters for future manned missions to Mars.
Dust storms and sand traps are obstacles that should be avoided. Sand traps are not necessarily circumvented by low slope routes. Dust storms block the sun so that the rover can’t recharge its batteries using solar panels, but neither of these obstacles will be easily identified in time to avoid a breakdown.
Using mapping software, sophisticated algorithms determine optimal routes based on a variety of variables such as weather, landforms, resource proximity and human ecosystem requirements for survival in extreme environments. Before sending any rovers to the surface of the Moon or Mars, simulations and analogs on Earth will help to identify potential hazards and pitfalls. On the lunar and Martian surfaces, charting optimal planetary roads will necessarily consider many different factors.
Image source: https://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/fall12articles/mapping-a-mission-to-mars.html
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (marspatrol Instagram)
