Astrobotic, which is launching its debut lander on Vulcan, said today it is purchasing a Falcon Heavy for its third lander mission to the Moon. This mission will launch an Astrobotic lander to the Moon’s South Pole in 2026.
Astrobotic said it announced the contract today during the spring Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) meeting, but today's sessions have yet to start. There is a CLPS panel later today; hopefully that is webcast in the interest of avoiding "poor/restricted communications"
ASTROBOTIC PURCHASES FALCON HEAVY LAUNCH SERVICESPRESS RELEASE 04 | 25 | 23Laurel, Maryland – Astrobotic announced today during the spring Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) its purchase of launch services aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for its third upcoming lander mission to the Moon. This mission will launch an Astrobotic lander to the Moon’s South Pole in 2026 to deliver payload customer instruments and cargo from around the world. The lunar south pole is an area of increasing interest and planned activity, and Astrobotic is rising to meet the demand for missions to this key destination with the purchase of a Falcon Heavy to deliver medium-class payloads.“The NASA Artemis program is a major effort to establish a U.S. presence at the lunar south pole, and at the same time, international customers are also lining up plans to pioneer new science, exploration, and commercial activities within this region as well,” said Astrobotic CEO, John Thornton. “With all this rising interest, we felt now is the time to announce our next commercial mission to deliver hundreds of kilograms of payload to the lunar south pole.”This next mission lands at an area of intense interest for science instruments, technology demonstrators, rovers, power systems, and other infrastructure. Astrobotic plans to carry lunar surface payloads, as well as offer satellite deployments for those looking to deploy to other destinations in cislunar space.“This third mission represents our next step toward making the Moon an accessible destination for those who have sophisticated, long term plans for the south pole,” said Thornton.Astrobotic’s third lunar mission is targeted to launch in 2026 aboard a Falcon Heavy from SpaceX’s facilities in Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Pittsburgh, PA – April 9, 2024 – Astrobotic is partnering on MOONRISE, a project in which researchers are working to bring 3D printing to the Moon. Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) has contracted with Astrobotic for a flight to the Moon, set to take place in late 2026.“I am excited to announce our partnership with Astrobotic, a key player in space technology. We are thrilled to have found a partner with whom we can, in the most literal sense of the word, elevate this great project,” says LZH’s CEO, Dr. Dietmar Kracht. Astrobotic is a lunar logistics company that provides end-to-end delivery services for payloads to the Moon, for both commercial and scientific purposes. The company secured the contract through a competitive selection process. “The MOONRISE team is testing a key technology for future activity on the Moon, and we are grateful to be competitively selected for the delivery of their payload. MOONRISE is a great example of the kinds of new ideas, new science demonstrations, and new countries that can make use of our lander delivery services to advance their own planned contributions to the burgeoning lunar economy,” says Dan Hendrickson, Vice President of Business Development for Astrobotic. First steps to 3D Printing on the Moon with Laser and AILZH plans to equip Astrobotic’s lander with a compact, sturdy laser as payload. This laser will melt lunar dust, known as regolith, creating 2D structures on the lunar surface. A camera will capture the process, enabling researchers on Earth to analyze it through an intelligent image processing system. Artificial intelligence (AI) will not only help to find a suitable location on the lunar surface for laser melting, it shall also enable quality control of the printed structures. As the project gears up for its lunar mission in two years, LZH continues its research on Earth in collaboration with project partner TU Berlin, focusing on optimizing the laser melting process. Researchers are experimenting with synthetic regolith produced by TU Berlin and train the AI for lunar deployment. Vision: 3D-printed Moon BaseIn the MOONRISE project, LZH and TU Berlin researchers are exploring ways to manufacture infrastructure on the Moon using available materials. Transporting materials from Earth to the Moon is expensive with prices of up to one million dollars per kilogram. Directly creating landing sites, roads or buildings from lunar dust could therefore significantly reduce costs. The experiment aims to provide proof of concept that laser melting is viable on the Moon.
Pittsburgh, PA – July 16, 2024 – Astrobotic is one step closer to establishing a lunar power grid with the initiation of a summer-long test campaign for its VSAT Optimized for Lunar Traverse (VOLT). VOLT is a specialized lunar rover equipped with a vertical solar array designed to drive across the Moon, and harness solar energy to charge a variety of lunar surface assets like habitats, rovers, and science instruments at lunar south pole. An engineering model of VOLT’s mobile rover base underwent testing in the Simulated Lunar Operations Laboratory (SLOPE) at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The tests demonstrated the vehicle’s stability, gimbal functionality, and sun tracking capabilities on an inclined bed of lunar regolith simulant. Although VOLT was designed to operate on a 15-degree incline, it surpassed expectations by remaining completely stable on a 20-degree slope with no slippage. Furthermore, VOLT’s gimbal maintained a level position within a 3-degree tolerance, confirming its capability to support the 60-foot vertical solar array that will be integrated later this year. NASA Glenn’s motion capture cameras validated the stability of the lunar rover while resting on a regolith surface, ensuring the vehicle’s stability on inclined terrain, analogous to what is expected to be found at the lunar south pole. “To supply continuous power at the poles of the Moon, we need to take advantage of existing peaks of persistent light: locations with near constant sunlight throughout the year. Since most of these locations are at crater rims with high slope angles, we designed VOLT to deploy on extreme slopes. These tests proved that our system can operate successfully, with plenty of margin for more extreme locations,” says Robert Rolley, Astrobotic’s Principal Investigator for VOLT. Prior to the test campaign, Astrobotic’s team engineered, prototyped, and assembled the VOLT’s mobile base, a lunar rover with a chassis the size of a minivan. The entire structure – including the electronics and gimbal – were all assembled within 12 weeks. The gimbal system is key to optimally orienting a solar array on the Moon to capture solar energy, level the array on uneven terrain, and maintain stability while the array tracks the Sun autonomously in 360 degrees. VOLT can be delivered to the Moon aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander and egress onto the surface to operate independently without a tow from another vehicle. VOLT is a key part of Astrobotic’s LunaGrid system to deliver power on the Moon. LunaGrid is a network of tethered VOLTs that generate power. Power is distributed from VOLTs both via wired connections and wireless chargers onboard tethered CubeRovers, which act as mobile power plugs. LunaGrid will supply power to enable systems to operate during the lunar day and then survive the lunar night for months at a time. “It’s imperative that we solve the power-generation challenge on the Moon for sustainable long-term operations,” said John Landreneau, Senior Project Manager at Astrobotic. “VOLT’s ability to precisely drive and operate in the most desirable areas for solar capture and distribution sets this technology apart. With strategic partnerships and novel tech developed in-house by our team, VOLT and the LunaGrid system are making great progress to bring reliable power to lunar surface systems like landers, rovers, habitats, and science suites.” The first unveiling of the entire VOLT engineering model is planned for late October during the annual Keystone Space Conference held in Pittsburgh, PA. Astrobotic plans to deploy and demonstrate LunaGrid elements on the lunar surface no earlier than mid-2026 with the goal of the first operational LunaGrid by 2028 at the Moon’s south pole.
With a test campaign (TVAC and SLOPE) complete, the VOLT engineering model, which was engineered, prototyped, and assembled at Astrobotic’s Pittsburgh, PA headquarters, is on display at the company’s 501c3 non-profit, Moonshot Museum.
