Challenges of Robotic Milli-G Operations for Asteroid Mining

Asteroid mining is one of most attractive targets for extraterrestrial resource utilisation. They offer access to a wide range of useful materials ranging from volatile ices and salts to organics to ceramics to metals. However, to undertake mining operations, there are several broad robotic challenges associated with their milli-g environments that must be addressed first. There are several basic capabilities that must be mastered robotically – excavation, traverse, drilling and anchorage. We examine some technologies that can implement these functions – in particular, our Kapvik microrover with its exchangeable chassis and a bio-inspired drilling mechanism - but find that the requirement for reaction weight makes milli-g operation much more challenging. Furthermore, we do not have good models of these capabilities under milli-g conditions rendering the implementation of intelligent robotics difficult – expert systems and neural networks require such models.