NASA is launching the second mission of the Artemis campaign to explore more of the moon than ever before, and University of Iowa staff and alumni are helping to make the lunar expeditions possible by developing lunar terrain vehicle simulations. 

According to NASA, Artemis II could launch as early as March. While Artemis II is a manned fly-by of the moon, the following Artemis mission will see astronauts touching down on the lunar surface, and as early as 2030,  Artemis V will see astronauts using the lunar vehicle.

The last manned flight to the moon occurred 53 years ago on Apollo 17, which launched Dec. 7, 1972. 

A UI alumnus and University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering professor, Dan Negrut, is helping to create simulations for Intuitive Machines’ Moon Racer, a lunar vehicle possibly set to be used in the Artemis V. 

Intuitive Machines’ lunar terrain vehicle design has been marked as a candidate with two other vehicles to be used for the Artemis missions.

Negrut said NASA initially aimed to announce which of the three companies’ designs it would buy for over $4 billion by the end of 2025 but has now removed a definitive deadline on the decision. 

“It’s just a big project,” Negrut said. “I’m super happy that our lab is helping with the rover simulations. The rover has this big team that has probably 10 different organizations.”

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Negrut said the lunar terrain warrants a unique engineering approach to the wheels, calling for them to be easily deformed or morphed. 

“I’ve never worked with something like this before,” he said. “You obviously don’t have paved roads and such. The regular terrain is very soft. The wheels are going to basically sink in the terrain. You want them to deform a lot to become almost like a track wheel.”

Negrut collaborated with UI staff from the Driving Safety Research Institute last spring to present to NASA a simulation in which the UI’s National Advanced Driving Simulator was used to replicate driving a rover on the south pole of the moon as part of a U.S. National Science Foundation funded study.

Chris Schwarz, director of engineering and modeling research at the UI’s Driving Safety Research Institute, said the presentation showed NASA how a simulated environment could help astronauts get accustomed to driving in lower gravity, synchronizing the moon’s time with time on Earth, and extreme lighting conditions. 

“We look at things like how people interact with their vehicles, their dashboards, how they put their information on their screens,” he said. “When they’re up driving on the moon, they’re going to be moving from the darkest shadows to the brightest light.”

Schwarz said he trusts that all three designs for the lunar terrain vehicle models that NASA is choosing for future Artemis missions are well-designed. 

The National Advanced Driving Simulator could come in handy for research questions and human practice, Schwarz said. The simulator lies in a 64-by-64-foot bay, one of the largest driving simulators in the world. 

“There’s still going to be so many human factors and problems to think about to improve the quality of life and to make sure that they’re safe,” Schwarz said. “I think that our simulator can play a part there.” 

Daniel McGehee, the director of the Driving Safety Research Institute, was also at the NASA presentation last spring, where he presented the history of UI’s driving simulations. 

McGehee said it came about from a nationwide competition sponsored by the National Science Foundation, in which the UI went head-to-head against the second finalist — the University of Michigan — to claim the spot of a national driving laboratory. 

McGehee said the simulator remains in Coralville as one of the largest simulators in the world.

McGehee said the UI has long been a pioneer for driver-vehicle interfaces, helping to develop advanced technologies for the time, such as cruise control and lane assist, through the laboratory. He hopes to continue building that reputation as NASA sends humankind back to the moon. 

“That’s one of the things that I was proud of,” he said. “We’ve been able to really develop that international reputation, along with our other space physics colleagues, that were sought after for advice when it comes to complex and challenging engineering issues.”