The approach pursued by FZI is based on a wheel-driven and teleoperated robot equipped with a bucket wheel excavator and an integrated processing unit for grain classification. An additional camera mast provides an overview of the area of operation and is used to remotely control the robot.

The prototype was built and tested as part of the ESA-ESRIC Space Resources Challenge. An exemplary mission sequence with the DUST rover took place at the LUNA Moon Center in Cologne and began with the selection of a suitable mining area based on camera images.

This enabled an energy- and risk-minimized route to be planned, and the robot then manually navigated to the target area. Optional particle distribution tests could be carried out here. The automated digging process then began, while the material was already being processed in parallel. Since regolith particles are sharp-edged and prone to clogging, special measures were integrated to prevent blockages, including vibration mechanisms and the option to interrupt the screening process temporarily. After completing the excavation, the robot returns to base, where the screening is completed, and the extracted regolith fractions are finally measured.

The resulting rover prototype enables scalable and efficient resource extraction with the aid of a mobile robot system. The project thus contributes to the preparation of future manned lunar missions and to the development of robust, practical robot systems for extreme environments.