Components from Australia’s lunar rover, ‘Roo-ver’, visited the space testing facility at the ANU Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) to be tested against extreme radiation.

The Radiation Effects team of the ELO2 Consortium, the industry and research team designing and building Roo-ver, brought several critical electronic component types and subjected them to simulated extreme radiation in the unique facility of HIAF’s Space Irradiation Beam Line (SIBL) – and were pleased to see they passed successfully.

The testing is crucial as, on the Moon, Roo-ver will encounter an environment very harsh for hardware, especially electronics, said Associate Professor Jeremy Brown, who is Roover’s Radiation Effects work-package leader.

“Radiation on the surface of the Moon is actually more damaging than in free space,” said Associate Professor Brown, from Swinburne University of Technology.

“The rate of exposure from radiation is about 100 times greater in space than it is on Earth. Then once you get onto the lunar surface then scattering from space radiation interacting with the lunar surface means you get about a 20 percent higher dose.”

Roo-ver will be an entirely Australian designed, built and tested semi-autonomous rover, planned for deployment to the Moon in 2030.

The project is being carried out by a consortium of 21 organisations, supported by $42M from the Australian Space Agency.

“We are upskilling the nation as a part of the process. Everyone from across the country is working closely together to reach this quite ambitious goal,” Associate Professor Brown said, referencing his team that ranges from himself, a senior academic, through post-docs Soon Hock Ng and Matt Large to PhD student Jayden Rinaldo. 

Associate Professor Brown said the project is helping to reverse the brain drain, attracting skilled Australians from around the globe back to their home country.

“The investment from the government and ANU has been great. It’s interesting to see a system originally designed for nuclear physics be repurposed towards space testing, especially at the moment with the number of testing facilities dropping off.

“And to be honest, it’s the best testing facility in the country for what we need to do.”

HIAF-SIBL is part of the NCRIS-funded Heavy Ion Accelerators (HIA) capability and was established with support from the Australian Space Agency to provide Australia with sovereign space radiation testing capability. The facility enables researchers and industry to test spacecraft components against the types of radiation encountered beyond Earth's atmosphere.

HIA CEO Dr Tom McGoram said the Space Beamline was funded through a Space Infrastructure Facility (SIF) grant from the Australian Space Agency in 2020.

“We developed this facility for exactly this type of testing, to support Australia's space ambitions,” he said.

The Roo-ver team focussed on testing Hall sensors, sensitive components that sit close to the ground, which increases their exposure[MR1]  due to scattering from the lunar surface. Putting them into the SIBL, they then bombarded them with chlorine or nickel at energies that simulated the penetration depth of space radiation, monitoring for linear energy transfers (LETs) – destructive interactions that either kill components in a one-off interaction, or cause gradual deterioration.

Associate Professor Brown said that the tests were completed on schedule, and the components mostly withstood the conditions, the exception being one sensor failing at the highest energy, beyond the expected operational environment.

“The equivalent time in space you would need to get the same level of exposure at this LET is around 400,000 years,” he said.

Misty Lakelin, ANU Technical Officer on the Space Irradiation Beamline, was also positive about the collaboration.

“The Roo-ver team’s test boards were masterfully designed to make the testing simple and efficient and ensure we got the best outcomes from the beamtime,” she said.

“We're definitely proud as an Australian facility to have contributed to a project like this with such national importance.”

Roo-ver Consortium Director Ben Sorensen said the testing marks an important milestone for Australia's first lunar rover.

"This work is helping build Australia's capability to design, build and operate spacecraft beyond Earth's magnetosphere, including in cislunar, lunar and deep-space environments," he said.

"Few countries currently have this capability, and Roo-ver is bringing together some of Australia's leading research organisations and scientists to help build it here.”

About Roo-ver

Roo-ver is Australia's first lunar rover, designed, built and tested entirely within Australia and set for deployment to the Moon in 2030. The program is led by the Australian Space Agency, backed by $42 million in funding and delivered by a Consortium of 21 organisations from across industry and academia. 

Roo-ver forms part of Australia's growing role in international lunar exploration, working alongside global partners while building sovereign space capability at home. The program is also creating a pipeline of skilled Australian talent across engineering, robotics, and space science, drawing expertise from around the country and the globe back into the nation's space sector.