EGU25-18773, updated on 15 Mar 2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18773
EGU General Assembly 2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
The Tumbleweed Science Testbed: Rolling Out Theory into Action
James Kingsnorth, Luka Pikulić, Abhimanyu Shanbhag, Mário de Pinto Balsemão, Cristina Moisuc, Gergana Bounova, Daan Molhuijsen, Sabin Ilegitim, Arun Osman, Ben Placke, and Julian Rothenbuchner
James Kingsnorth et al.
  • Team Tumbleweed, Delft, Netherlands (james@teamtumbleweed.eu)

The Tumbleweed mission is a swarm-based mission using a large set of wind-driven spheroidal rovers, providing large spatio-temporal datasets on the Martian surface. Development of the scientific use-cases requires proof of feasibility on the Tumbleweed rover and simultaneously of individual instruments aboard it. Although several prototypes have been developed to some success, the ability of the Tumbleweed Rovers to produce environmental data both statically and dynamically, and, more importantly, both conjointly, needs to be proven. 

Over the last few months we have been developing a reusable platform that enables the proposed suite of instruments to be tested on the so-called ‘Tumbleweed Science Testbed’. The  testbed is a sub-scale rover prototype, equipped with a cuboid payload bay which provides modular interfaces to a variety of COTS and bespoke payloads. In addition to the payload bay, modestly sized sensors can also be incorporated on the structure, providing opportunities for contact-based measurements and vertical profiling relevant for atmospheric sciences. 

The science testbed is a 2.7-meter-diameter prototype Tumbleweed rover equipped with a 1U-capacity payload bay. Phase 1 of development focuses on integrating simple, chip-based instruments and plug-and-play sensors with a commercially available single-board computer. For this first iteration, ten sensors have been integrated and subjected to functional tests. In accordance with the science objectives of the Martian Tumbleweed mission, these include a wind sensor, magnetometer, camera, temperature & humidity sensor, pressure sensor, dust/particle sensor, and gas sensor. These instruments will be tested on the mobile science testbed in the Netherlands to understand the influence of Tumbleweed rover dynamics on instrument collection and processing. The testbed will enable evaluation of operational strategies of the tumbling rover as well as the various sensors on-board. Subsequently, the testbed will be used for systematic evaluation of navigation, data compression, noise removal and communication algorithms which are currently under development.

Success criteria of this test includes the following:

  • The payload remains stable and successfully stabilises the rover while the overall structure remains intact.
  • Data collection from all instruments is achieved for the entirety of the test run and while idle.
  • Detailed observation and characterization of the rover’s tumbling dynamics.

The next phase of development of the science testbed will involve the integration of more sophisticated, custom-built instruments such as a radiation spectrometer, soil-permittivity sensor, electric field sensor and hand-lens imager.

Subsequently, the testbed will be used in Mars analog environments to test and develop novel, miniaturized payloads for swarm-based mission architectures. The testbed will be expanded with the addition of identical rovers, to simulate collaborative exploration and the execution of collocated measurements on Mars-like terrain.

How to cite: Kingsnorth, J., Pikulić, L., Shanbhag, A., de Pinto Balsemão, M., Moisuc, C., Bounova, G., Molhuijsen, D., Ilegitim, S., Osman, A., Placke, B., and Rothenbuchner, J.: The Tumbleweed Science Testbed: Rolling Out Theory into Action, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18773, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18773, 2025.

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