Avancées lunaires – Robotique et IA pour l'exploration autonome

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 et Services d'applications spatiales 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 et 10^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.

Source: 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 de très 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.

Comment ça a fonctionné

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.

Source: 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

Machines intuitives

Envoyer des sondes vers des objets interstellaires nécessitera une solide expertise dans la construction de sondes spatiales de grande taille et leur acheminement intact au bon endroit. Pour l'instant, cette mission relève principalement d'institutions publiques comme la NASA, l'ESA et les universités partenaires.

La situation évolue à mesure que nous nous rapprochons du moment où des entreprises privées pourraient commencer à envoyer des missions automatisées ou habitées pour exploiter les astéroïdes, en particulier les objets proches de la Terre.

Ce type de projet constituera probablement la prochaine étape ou sera réalisé en parallèle du retour des missions habitées sur la Lune, prévu dans les années à venir.

Fondée en 2013 à Houston, au Texas, Intuitive Machines est, pour l'instant, une entreprise très axée sur la Lune, comme l'indique son symbole boursier LUNR, et a déjà a été sélectionné pour 4 missions lunaires de la NASAet emploie plus de 400 personnes.

Source: Machines intuitives

Elle a été la première entreprise commerciale à réussir l'atterrissage et la transmission de données scientifiques depuis la Lune. Elle a également réalisé le premier allumage du moteur LOx/LCH4 (oxygène liquide, méthane liquide) dans l'espace.

L'entreprise travaille sur de nombreux projets qui formeront la base d'une infrastructure lunaire pour l'exploration et la colonisation.

Le premier est le «service de transmission de données», la technologie étant testée, et visant finalement à aboutir à une constellation de transmission de données lunaires autour de l'orbite de la Lune.

Source: Machines intuitives

Le deuxième volet est l'« Infrastructure en tant que service ». Il devrait inclure un LTV capable d'opérer de manière autonome, un service de télécommunication et des services de localisation GPS.

Source: Machines intuitives

Le dernier segment concerne le transport de matériaux vers la surface lunaire. Jusqu'à présent, l'entreprise a livré des charges utiles scientifiques avec le Atterrisseur Nova-C, un atterrisseur de 4.3 mètres de haut (14 pieds) capable de livrer 130 kg de charge utile sur la Lune.

La prochaine étape consistera à déployer l'atterrisseur Nova-D, capable de transporter entre 1 500 et 2 500 kg de matériel sur la Lune. Cette capacité et ces dimensions seront nécessaires pour le transport du véhicule lunaire (LTV), ainsi que du réacteur nucléaire de surface à fission de 40 kW qui devrait alimenter la base lunaire.

Source: Machines intuitives

L'entreprise a décroché de nombreux contrats de valeur avec la NASA, par exemple le contrat Near Space Network, d'une valeur potentielle maximale de 4.82 milliards de dollars.

La décision finale du contrat LTV par la NASA entre les 3 fournisseurs potentiels est attendue pour la fin de 2025 et pourrait également valoir jusqu'à 4.6 milliards de dollars.

Outre la NASA, l'entreprise cherche à diversifier sa clientèle. En avril 2025, elle a été sélectionnée pour une subvention pouvant atteindre 10 millions de dollars par la Commission spatiale du Texas. Cette subvention soutiendra le développement d'un véhicule de rentrée terrestre et d'un laboratoire de fabrication orbitale destinés à la biofabrication en microgravité.

Ce véhicule de rentrée fournira également une option de secours et réduira les risques pour les futures missions de retour d'échantillons lunaires de la Société.

Un autre projet est le développement de satellites nucléaires furtifs à faible puissance pour un contrat JETSON du laboratoire de recherche de l'armée de l'air.

Alors que l'entreprise atteint un point de flux de trésorerie disponible positif au premier trimestre 1, et avec le contrat de télécommunication lunaire, elle devient désormais beaucoup plus sûre pour les investisseurs, passant d'une startup qui brûle des liquidités à un fournisseur de services établi pour l'économie spatiale en pleine croissance.

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) ou Rocket Lab (RKLB -6.47%).

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

Références:

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