Astrobotic Technology is partnering with NASA to send its robotic lander to the moon.
Astrobotic Technology, which spun out of Carnegie Mellon University in 2008, has been selected for a partnership agreement with NASA as one of three companies to help the agency advance lunar landing capabilities. The agency hopes the partnerships will help it support sending commercial payloads to the surface of the moon.
NASA’s Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (Catalyst) initiative sought partners in the development of reliable and cost-effective commercial robotic lunar lander capabilities to support science and exploration objectives, such as sample returns, geophysical network deployment, resource prospecting, and technology demonstrations. The two other companies selected were Masten Space Systems and Moon Express.
NASA is to negotiate agreements with the companies to share technical expertise, agency testing facilities, equipment and software over the next three years. Astrobotic has proposed to develop a commercially viable lunar cargo delivery system, and is looking at an October 2015 launch date. Its lander would travel at least 500 metres along the lunar surface and transmit a high definition video signal to Earth to claim the Google Lunar XPrize, worth $20m with the potential to win more if certain extra achievements are reached. Astrobotics has reserved a launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle for that purpose. Moon Express is also competing in the competition that has a deadline of December 31, 2015.
Astrobotic was spun out of Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute in 2008 by professor William Whittaker and his associates, specifically with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize. It is operating under a sponsored research agreement which exclusively licenses space robotics technology to the company.
Whittaker, Astrobotic’s chairman, said: “Moon landing once symbolised the pinnacle of human achievement. Catalyst now evolves that to enterprise and to the remarkable capability that is possible through this public-private partnership. Catalyst will build a bright future combining a mix of new resourcefulness with legacy and innovation.”