Telerobotic Mars Mission for Lava Tube Exploration and Examination of Life
Hanjo Schnellbaecher, Florian Dufresne, Tommy Nilsson, Leonie Becker,, Oliver Bensch, Enrico Guerra, Wafa Sadri, Vanessa Neumann

TL;DR
This paper proposes a high-risk, high-reward telerobotic Mars mission using a rover with multiple independent payloads to explore lava tubes, search for signs of past life, and test innovative technologies for future colonization.
Contribution
It introduces a novel mission architecture with multiple independent payloads to enhance scientific return and technological testing in Martian lava tubes.
Findings
Exploration of lava tubes for signs of past life.
Assessment of biomatter as potential food and building materials.
Evaluation of new power generation techniques using Martian resources.
Abstract
The general profile and overarching goal of this proposed mission is to pioneer potentially highly beneficial (even vital) and cost-effective techniques for the future human colonization of Mars. Adopting radically new and disruptive solutions untested in the Martian context, our approach is one of high risk and high reward. The real possibility of such a solution failing has prompted us to base our mission architecture around a rover carrying a set of 6 distinct experimental payloads, each capable of operating independently on the others, thus substantially increasing the chances of the mission yielding some valuable findings. At the same time, we sought to exploit available synergies by assembling a combination of payloads that would together form a coherent experimental ecosystem, with each payload providing potential value to the others. Apart from providing such a testbed for…
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Taxonomy
TopicsPlanetary Science and Exploration · Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
