Unmanned Systems Technology 006 | ECA Inspector Mk2 USV | Antenna systems | Northwest UAV NW-44 | Unmanned ground vehicles | Navigation systems | Lunar X challenge

76 D espite many years of limited innovation in autonomous space systems, 2016 is set to see a renaissance, with Google’s Lunar XPrize (GLXP) competition seeing up to 16 autonomous rovers heading to the Moon to compete for a $40m prize fund. The challenge is simple but difficult to achieve – get to the Moon, travel 500 m, take a high-resolution photo of the surroundings and send it back to Earth. The first team to do that will win $20m. The competition is open to private groups, and has already stimulated the development of technology for private space travel and exploration. For the rovers, this includes new bearing designs, dust control systems, control algorithms, imaging systems and autonomous navigation software for the challenging lunar terrain. All of this had to be developed at low cost and with low weight, as the major Nick Flaherty reports on how teams from the private sector are vying to become the first to land an autonomous rover on the Moon Destination Moon February/March 2016 | Unmanned Systems Technology German team Part Time Scientists has been backed by car maker Audi to develop this 250 kg lander