Avances lunares: robótica e inteligencia artificial para la exploración autónoma

AI-Driven Robotics for Autonomous Space Exploration

One day, space exploration might make use of astronauts living permanently on site, as envisioned by the Artemis missions for the Moon, or by Elon Musk for Mars. Still, even with human presence, a lot of the work in space will be done by robots, if nothing else, because they are a lot easier to replace than human astronauts and a lot less vulnerable to toxic air or vacuum, radiation, brutal temperatures, etc.

Ideally, most of the rovers and robots should be able to handle themselves for simple tasks, with humans on Earth or on-site only involved to help them solve specific problems or determine their daily missions.

As AI progresses quickly, including physical AI, a concept now championed by AI leader NVIDIA, this science-fiction vision might already be a reality.

Scientists are taking the first steps in that direction, both in research projects on Earth and with existing rovers on Mars, with two news items related to this topic in the past few days.

The first one was that NASA has deployed AI assistance to guide the Martian rover Perseverance.

The second one is that researchers at the University of Malaga (Spain), the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Sorbonne Université (France), as well as the private companies GMV Aerospace and Defence S.A, Magellium y Servicios de aplicaciones espaciales are deploying robots in Earth lava tubes that resemble similar structures on the Moon and Mars¹.

Perseverance Rover’s AI-Assisted Autonomous Navigation

NASA’s First AI-Planned Rover Drives on Mars

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover hit a new scientific milestone as it completed the first drives on another world that were planned by artificial intelligence. Announced recently, the move was done on December 8^th y séptima^th, 2025.

The demonstration used generative AI to create waypoints for Perseverance, a complex decision-making task typically performed manually by the mission’s human rover planners.

Fuente: NASA

This could prove to be a game-changer for Martian exploration. The extreme distance between Earth and Mars (140 million miles / 225 million kilometers) means that light-lag causes a signal lag, which means that every instruction takes 3-22 minutes (depending on orbital positions) to arrive at Mars from Earth, and feedback then takes the same time again.

As NASA scientists are muy cautious to avoid getting the multi-billion dollar project stuck in dust or damaged by a rock, this makes any movement a tedious crawl.

Instead, Perseverance did something new for its 1,707 and 1,709 days on the Martian surface, letting the rover decide where to go using AI.

Cómo funcionó

It used generative AI to analyse the high-resolution orbital imagery from the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and terrain-slope data from digital elevation models.

Combined with data from previous explorations, this allowed the AI to identify terrain features like bedrock, outcrops, hazardous boulder fields, sand ripples, etc.

The AI model used was Claude, provided by Anthropic, which recently made headlines for potentially disrupting the entire SaaS and software industry, causing a mini stock market crash in this sector.

This AI-guided travel helped Perseverance capture images in its two-hour 30-minute autonomous drive along Jezero Crater’s rim.

AI can also be useful in processing the data generated by space probes and reducing the workload of the robot operators.

No doubt this will be extra useful when actual astronauts are near the robot as well, as by then, AI might be more capable.

In addition, a human presence and logistical support will let NASA operators take more risks, as a robot stuck in dust could be freed manually, instead of causing a catastrophic multi-billion-dollar loss and years of research frozen.

Testing AI On Earth’s Lava Tubes

Why Lava Tubes

While AI deployment on Mars is a groundbreaking first, NASA researchers are understandably cautious in risking a unique asset like Perseverance in an AI experiment. For example, no matter how efficient the AI, it would never take the chance of deploying the robot beyond what could be fixed by a human teleoperator in case something goes wrong.

This is why experimenting with terrains analog to what is found in space, but with Earth resources available nearby, is important as well.

The most important possible terrain on the Moon and Mars is lava tubes, which form natural caves that could form natural shelters for the first astronauts to protect them from cosmic radiation. And thanks to these stellar objects’ lower gravity, lava tubes there tend to be larger than they ever could be on Earth.

Lava tubes can naturally have spots that caved in, leading to holes in the ground providing direct access for exploration.

However, no offworld lava tubes have ever been explored, in large part due to the fact that direct control is impaired by the rock blocking any radio signal.

Testing Robots

The European research team used three different robots working together to explore these extreme underground environments autonomously.

Fuente: ResearchGate

They deployed their test in the volcanic caves/lava tubes of Lanzarote (Canary Islands).

The system works in 4 phases:

1. The robots cooperatively map the area around the lava tunnel entrance (phase 1).
2. Then the sensorized payload cube is dropped into the cave to gather initial measurements, giving the robots an idea of what to expect (phase 2).
3. Then, a scout rover rappels down through the entrance to reach the interior (phase 3).
4. Lastly, the robotic team explores the tunnel in depth and produces detailed 3D maps of its interior (phase 4).

From Earth Analog Tests to Lunar & Martian Missions

In recent years, the Space Robotics Laboratory at the UMA has worked closely with the European Space Agency, developing algorithms that help planetary exploration vehicles (rovers) plan routes and operate more independently.

Combined with Perseverance’s test run of AI-driven movement, this experiment could form the basis of a new space mission, aiming to explore a lava tube for its potential to form future habitats for early colonization efforts on the Moon and Mars.

This could also have important implications in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Investing In Space Robotics

Máquinas intuitivas

El envío de sondas a objetos interestelares requerirá una sólida experiencia en la construcción de grandes sondas espaciales y su llegada intacta al lugar correcto. Hasta ahora, esto ha sido competencia exclusiva de instituciones públicas como la NASA, la ESA y universidades asociadas.

Esto está cambiando a medida que nos acercamos al punto en que las empresas privadas podrían comenzar a enviar misiones automatizadas o tripuladas para extraer información de asteroides, especialmente objetos cercanos a la Tierra.

Este tipo de proyecto probablemente será el siguiente paso o se realizará en paralelo al regreso de las misiones tripuladas a la Luna, planificadas para los próximos años.

Fundada en 2013 en Houston, Texas, Intuitive Machines es, por ahora, una empresa muy “centrada en la Luna”, como lo indica su símbolo bursátil LUNR, y ya ha Ha sido seleccionado para 4 misiones lunares de la NASA.y emplea a más de 400 personas.

Fuente: Máquinas intuitivas

Fue la primera compañía comercial en aterrizar con éxito y transmitir datos científicos desde la Luna. También realizó el primer encendido del motor LOx/LCH4 (oxígeno líquido, metano líquido) en el espacio.

La empresa está trabajando en numerosos proyectos que formarán la base de una infraestructura lunar para la exploración y el asentamiento.

El primero es el “servicio de transmisión de datos”, con la tecnología en prueba y buscando finalmente terminar con una constelación de transmisión de datos lunares alrededor de la órbita de la Luna.

Fuente: Máquinas intuitivas

La segunda parte es la "Infraestructura como Servicio". Debe incluir un LTV con capacidad de operación autónoma, el servicio de telecomunicaciones y los servicios de localización GPS.

Fuente: Máquinas intuitivas

El último segmento es el envío de material a la superficie lunar. Hasta ahora, la compañía ha entregado cargas útiles científicas con... Módulo de aterrizaje Nova-C, un módulo de aterrizaje de 4.3 metros de altura (14 pies) capaz de entregar 130 kg de carga útil a la Luna.

El siguiente paso será el módulo de aterrizaje Nova-D, capaz de transportar entre 1,500 y 2,500 kg de material a la Luna. Esta capacidad y tamaño de carga útil serán los necesarios para el transporte del Vehículo Terrestre Lunar (LTV), así como del reactor nuclear de 40 kW de fisión de superficie que se espera alimente la base lunar.

Fuente: Máquinas intuitivas

La empresa ha conseguido muchos contratos valiosos con la NASA, por ejemplo, el contrato Near Space Network, con un valor potencial máximo de 4.82 millones de dólares.

Se espera que la decisión final del contrato LTV por parte de la NASA entre los tres proveedores potenciales se tome para fines de 3 y valdría hasta $2025 mil millones también.

Además de la NASA, la empresa busca diversificar su cartera de clientes, tras haber sido seleccionada en abril de 2025 para una subvención de hasta 10 millones de dólares por la Comisión Espacial de Texas. Esta subvención apoyará el desarrollo de un vehículo de reentrada a la Tierra y un laboratorio de fabricación orbital diseñado para permitir la biofabricación en microgravedad.

Este vehículo de reentrada también proporcionará una opción de respaldo y reducirá los riesgos para las futuras misiones de retorno de muestras lunares de la Compañía.

Otro proyecto es el desarrollo de satélites furtivos nucleares de bajo consumo para un contrato JETSON del laboratorio de investigación de la Fuerza Aérea.

A medida que la empresa alcanza un punto de flujo de caja libre positivo en el primer trimestre de 1, y con el contrato de telecomunicaciones lunares, ahora se está volviendo mucho más segura para los inversores, alejándose de una startup que quema efectivo a un proveedor de servicios establecido para la creciente economía espacial.

And it could form the building block of further deep space exploration and utilization of space resources, especially as it becomes a trusted partner of NASA on par with SpaceX (soon to IPO after its merger with xAI) o Rocket Lab (RKLB -6.47%).

(Usted puede read more about Intuitive Machines in our investment report dedicated to the company.)

Referencias:

¹. Raúl Domínguez et al., Cooperative robotic exploration of a planetary skylight surface and lava cave. Science Robotics (2025). DOI:10.1126/scirobotics.adj9699