Autonomous Navigation on the Moon: Rovers, Drones and Humanoids

Prof. Grace Gao

Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University

Location: Stanford Robotics Center, Packard Electrical Engineering Bldg, Basement

Abstract:

We are entering a new era of Moon exploration. After more than fifty years since the Apollo program, NASA's Artemis mission will land humans on the Moon again. Already on April 6, 2026, the Artemis II mission completed a historic crewed lunar flyby. In addition, NASA announced their Moon Base plan earlier this year, a multi-billion-dollar initiative to establish a permanent human outpost near the lunar South Pole.

In this talk, I will present our recent learning and model-based research effort on autonomous navigation on the Moon. Our work provides tools for NASA’s Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) project to send a swarm of small rovers to the moon surface; the Endurance Mission concept for a long-range traverse and sample return rover to drive about 2000km autonomously in the lunar South Pole–Aitken basin; the MoonFall mission designed to scout and map potential landing sites near the lunar South Pole ahead of future human Artemis missions using propulsive "hopping" drones; and more recently training humanoids to perform tasks under Moon gravity.

Bio: 

Grace Gao is an associate professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in the Electrical Engineering Department. She leads the Navigation and Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory (NAV Lab) and serves as co-director of the Stanford AI Safety Center and co-lead of the Stanford SystemX Robotics area. Her research focuses on robust and secure perception, localization, and navigation, with applications in crewed and uncrewed aerial vehicles, autonomous cars, humanoid robots, and space robotics.

Prof. Gao has won numerous awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, the Institute of Navigation Early Achievement Award, the RTCA William E. Jackson Award, and the Inspiring Early Academic Career Award from Stanford University. In addition to her research achievements, she has received significant recognition for her teaching and advising, including the AIAA Stanford Chapter Excellence in Advising Award and the Excellence in Teaching Award.