(Radio Iowa) – As NASA prepares to launch the Artemis Two mission to the Moon as soon as this coming weekend, researchers at the University of Iowa are tackling a challenge future astronauts may need to deal with — how to drive safely on the Moon. Chris Schwarz, director of engineering and modeling research at the U-I’s Driving Safety Research Institute, says they’ve developed a lunar rover simulator which he’s “driven” multiple times on the computerized mockup moonscape. “The gravity on the Moon is only one-sixth of the gravity on Earth, so it has a few effects that make it drive differently,” Schwarz says. “Of course, the vehicle is going to feel a lot lighter and more bouncy. When it leaves the surface of the Moon, it gets slippery, so the handling gets really squirrelly.”

The team has created what Schwarz says is a realistic simulation of lunar-surface driving, complete with reduced gravity and lunar dirt, or regolith. He says the biggest challenge for roving astronauts will be the lighting conditions where the Artemis missions will eventually go — to the lunar South Pole. “Since there’s no atmosphere, the shadows will be darker than anything you’ve ever experienced on Earth,” Schwarz says, “and then if you drive outside of the shadow, you’ll be in bright sunlight that’s brighter than anything you’ve ever experienced on Earth that can blind you if your eyes are not protected.” Developing the technology so control panels can be easily visible in both sets of extreme lighting conditions will be complicated.

The rover project was developed under a grant from the National Science Foundation, but he says NASA officials are being kept in the loop. “We have had them out to visit us at the simulator and we’ve talked a lot about some of the challenges that we think — and they think — they’re going to face on the Moon,” Schwarz says. “We think that having the capability to simulate the lunar rover could be a great tool for them to use to have an astronaut come in and actually drive the rover.”

It’s hoped the U-I research could eventually help NASA address critical challenges with lunar driving — traction loss, vehicle instability, and the deep shadows that fill the moon’s polar terrain, making it difficult to detect hazards and choose safe routes. While Artemis Two will be doing a fly-by of the Moon, the program’s third mission will land on the Moon, perhaps next year or in 2028. Schwarz says it’s possible rovers will be rolling in moondust again later this decade or early in the next. The last time a rover was used on the Moon was during Apollo 17 in December of 1972.