CHARON Deployment

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The animation begins with CHARON touching down, three accelerated lunar day/night cycles with the Sun and shadows moving together, then a nearby crew lander landing. After touchdown, the bridge unfolds from three hinged sections, lowers to the ground and raises its handrails. The camera moves toward the bridge, then the hatch opens and all six crew leave the low cabin along the deployed ramp before walking to CHARON. The three teams work in parallel, each with its own pair of small ladders and cargo column. The crew remove and lay out the exterior solar panels toward the Sun, unload the twelve closed CERBERUS kits into a three-by-four group to CHARON’s right, with their removable lids facing up, climb the small ladders onto CHARON’s floor to release and tilt the three rolls through the cleared doorways, supporting each lower end while a partner guides it onto their shoulders to carry it together like a log, deploy the blankets and connect the solar wiring to CHARON’s recessed electrical port. The crew use the ground, one size of small step ladder, the cleared CHARON floor, then that same ladder on the floor. Each pair flips a kit in place, takes both handles on their respective sides, then carries it upright. Small rigid panels sit nearest CHARON, larger panels farther away, and the three solar blankets unroll sideways beside them. One astronaut enters the landing-gear gap to connect the solar cable while their partner feeds it from outside. A second pair connects the crew lander’s low service socket to a different CHARON electrical port; their paired cable follows a clear ground route around the landing gear and unloaded cargo. The control cores remain in their aerogel shelters. Sequence timing is illustrative; the operating CERBERUS design at Moon Base One is unchanged.