A method for establishing an air-tight mating between a manned lunar rover and a module on the planetary surface

The paper addresses various solutions to the new problem of eliminating the misalignment of mating interfaces between a manned pressurized lunar rover and a lunar habitat in order to establish their air-tight connection. A comparison of methods was performed and the 6-DOF platform was selected for use in the lunar rover design, to be controlled by contact forces in the mating interfaces. Mockups were built for the lunar rover and the habitat that can establish the link up of the interfaces using the selected method. The paper presents the results of their testing. It provides a description of the mockup design; the lunar rover control timeline; algorithm for automatic (robotic) mating; the sensor equipment list; the software list. It discusses a design of the lunar rover docking assembly that is characterized by not having a docking mechanism within it. The paper arrives at the conclusion that the proposed method for eliminating the misalignment of the docking interfaces is theoretically feasible and operable.