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NASA has recently carried out testing on a robot arm, which it hopes will be able to chill out on the Earth's moon — literally, as it's designed to work in even the coldest of environments. 6 Axis Dummy Load Cell

NASA's COLDArm Aims to Chill Out at the Moon's South Pole — Literally - Hackster.io

"Going to the Moon, we need to be able to operate during colder temperatures, particularly during lunar night, without the use of heaters," explains COLDArm project principal investigator Ryan McCormick. "COLDArm would let missions continue working and conducting science even in extreme cryogenic environments."

The COLDArm — Cold-Operable Lunar Deployable Arm — is designed to avoid issues with mechanical devices operating in extremely cold temperatures, which McCormick likens to the fate of the liquid metal T-1000 robot in the 1991 classic sci-fi action flick Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Where the killer robot was frozen solid, then shattered, by a spill of liquid nitrogen, COLDArm could continue. "The bad guy can’t work in those temperatures," McCormick jokes, "but COLDArm could."

The arm is designed for lunar operations as part of the planned Artemis mission to the moon, in which NASA and industry partners will be exploring the South Pole region. Traditionally, the solution to robot operation in cold temperatures would be the inclusion of electric heaters — but as it'll be working in the dark and with a limited operational weight the COLDArm instead works directly in the cold, running even down to -280°F.

The COLDArm's cool operation, with four degrees of freedom (DoF) and a 6.6-foot overall length, is based on a range of technologies including: bulk metallic glass gears, tougher than ceramic, twice and strong as steel, and requiring no lubricant or heating; cold motor controllers from industry partner Motiv Space Systems; and a six-axis force torque sensor in the wrist joint for feedback. The robot's operating software, meanwhile, is F Prime — the same open-source control software used in the Ingenuity Mars helicopter.

Additional information on COLDArm is available on the NASA JPL website.