Michael Zanetti (ST13), Walter King (ST13 PiP from ES21), and Kyle Miller (EV42) conducted a technology demonstration and field work with the NASA JSC 3rd Joint EVA Test Team (JETT-3) from 10/5-9/22, near Flagstaff, AZ. JETT-3 tested full-up mission operations with communication to JSC-Houston, and included astronauts Zena Cardman and A.J. (Drew) Feustel testing ATLAS suits and 4-6 hr planned traverses near SP-Crater – a former Apollo astronaut geology training site. The Kinematic Navigation and Cartography Knapsack (KNaCK) team members were invited to demonstrate GPS-denied navigation solutions using our person-mounted velocity-sensing LiDAR sensors that provide local position in addition to terrain mapping capabilities. Tests were conducted at night and included the use of heads-up display of the LiDAR data for no-light and real-time situational awareness. KNaCK data will be processed to show the trace of the traverse with no GPS positioning, as well as create 3D topography maps of the path the astronauts investigated. Data will be used for future investigations and astronaut training in the SP-Crater region. Additionally, contact with Nick Downs, Senior Scientist at the Nevada National Security Site (home to nuclear explosion “impact” craters of the 1960’s Operation Plowshare) was made, and future collaboration and field mapping of Sedan and Schooner craters is being investigated. The associated image shows astronauts in ATLAS suits at a sampling stop along the traverse. KNaCK collected 3D topography and navigation data following the astronauts (but keeping out of sight to preserve mission realism).
The team also conducted a proof-of-concept test of the Kinematic Navigation and Cartography Knapsack (KNaCK) mobile LiDAR system for use in challenging underground and fully GPS-denied environments. The KNaCK team made 2 scans of the Lava River Cave, near Flagstaff, AZ on 10/6/22 and 10/8/22 in order to determine if the KNaCK instrument can provide an accurate model of the 3D morphology of the ~ 1mile-long, ~700,000-year-old lava-tube. We were joined by Ray Keeler, president of the Central AZ Grotto and Paul Jorgenson who demonstrated a novel underground radio communication technology which enabled crystal-clear radio-comms from underground to the support team on the surface. Data will be compared to previous survey efforts of the cave using traditional cave surveying methods and existing tripod-mounted LiDAR scans to evaluate the accuracy of GPS-denied mapping using the KNaCK system for rapid cave-surveying, as well as to investigate the use of LiDAR mapping for planetary analog environments in lava tubes on the Moon and Mars. Associated image shows KNaCK instrument in one of the larger passages of the Lava River Cave showing the morphology of a lava tube.
