Astrobotic Technology
Encyclopedia
Astrobotic Technology is a privately held seed-stage
company formed by Carnegie Mellon
professor Red Whittaker and his associates, with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize
. The company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
.
, both the descent stage and the lunar rover are now unnamed. Originally named "Red Rover" and "Artemis Lander," respectively, Astrobotic indicated in 2011 that they were reserving naming rights, as well as selection of the planned location for the lunar landing, for their payload customers. "We have to sell a lot of payload to make the economics work, ... the customers will decide where we go."
, Astrobotic had raised the payload price and made a distinction between payload fixed to the lander and payload carried on the lunar rover. The revised baseline prices are 1800000 $/kg for lander payload and 2000000 $/kg for rover payload, with the additional integration fee unchanged at per-payload.
Beyond the standard inclusions of 300 Watt-hours of power, and 100 MB of data transfer, per kilogram of mass purchased, pricing has been established for the purchase of additional power or Lunar-to-Earth data transfer.
for a Falcon 9
launch on a lunar mission for as early as December 2013. The mission is intended to "deliver a lander, small rover
and up to about 240 pounds (108.9 kg) of payload to the surface of the Moon."
A payload user's guide for researchers on preparation of their instruments was released in early March 2011.
, follow-on moon missions are tentatively planned for 2015 and 2016. Both are planned to be flown on Falcon 9
launch vehicles, with the same total mission payload as the first mission: 210 kilograms (463 lb), or 110 kilograms (242.5 lb) customer payload if the 100 kilograms (220.5 lb) rover is included on the mission. The 2015 mission is named Polar Excavator, would target the lunar south pole, and is nominally planned for July 2015. The 2016 mission will be customer driven, to a destination that will be selected by the customer, and is tentatively planned for Q3 2016.
By August 2011, per version 2.4 of the User's Guide, there had been two small changes to the mission manifest with the first mission now aimed for either an Apollo site or a skylight entrance to a lava tube, and the launch date has been changed to a range: December 2013 to April 2014.
The company will provide "communications
, power, thermal control
and pointing services" but the power, thermal control and comm on the lander is negotiable dependent on customer needs.
Power, telemetry and command
Mobility wheel base track width height speed
Power, telemetry and command
Imaging
Seed money
Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding, friends and family funding or angel funding , is a securities offering whereby one or more parties that have some connection to a new enterprise invest the funds necessary to start the business so that it has enough funds to sustain itself for a period...
company formed by Carnegie Mellon
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
professor Red Whittaker and his associates, with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize
Google Lunar X Prize
The Google Lunar X PRIZE, abbreviated GLXP, sometimes referred to as Moon 2.0, is a space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. It was announced at the Wired Nextfest on 13 September 2007...
. The company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
.
History
The team articulated an ambitious goal from the start in 2008: they hope to be the first to land their spacecraft "Red Rover" on the Moon, using the lander, named "Artemis Lander"., both the descent stage and the lunar rover are now unnamed. Originally named "Red Rover" and "Artemis Lander," respectively, Astrobotic indicated in 2011 that they were reserving naming rights, as well as selection of the planned location for the lunar landing, for their payload customers. "We have to sell a lot of payload to make the economics work, ... the customers will decide where we go."
Commercial payload pricing
, the company had priced payload carried to the lunar surface at 700000 $/lb with an additional per-payload fee of "to cover the cost of integration and to provide communications, power, thermal control and pointing services.", Astrobotic had raised the payload price and made a distinction between payload fixed to the lander and payload carried on the lunar rover. The revised baseline prices are 1800000 $/kg for lander payload and 2000000 $/kg for rover payload, with the additional integration fee unchanged at per-payload.
Beyond the standard inclusions of 300 Watt-hours of power, and 100 MB of data transfer, per kilogram of mass purchased, pricing has been established for the purchase of additional power or Lunar-to-Earth data transfer.
Moon mission
, Astrobotic has contracted with SpaceXSpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or more popularly and informally known as SpaceX, is an American space transport company that operates out of Hawthorne, California...
for a Falcon 9
Falcon 9
Falcon 9 is a rocket-powered spaceflight launch system designed and manufactured by SpaceX. Both stages of its two-stage-to-orbit vehicle use liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene propellants...
launch on a lunar mission for as early as December 2013. The mission is intended to "deliver a lander, small rover
Lunar rover
The Lunar Roving Vehicle or lunar rover was a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program during 1971 and 1972...
and up to about 240 pounds (108.9 kg) of payload to the surface of the Moon."
A payload user's guide for researchers on preparation of their instruments was released in early March 2011.
, follow-on moon missions are tentatively planned for 2015 and 2016. Both are planned to be flown on Falcon 9
Falcon 9
Falcon 9 is a rocket-powered spaceflight launch system designed and manufactured by SpaceX. Both stages of its two-stage-to-orbit vehicle use liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene propellants...
launch vehicles, with the same total mission payload as the first mission: 210 kilograms (463 lb), or 110 kilograms (242.5 lb) customer payload if the 100 kilograms (220.5 lb) rover is included on the mission. The 2015 mission is named Polar Excavator, would target the lunar south pole, and is nominally planned for July 2015. The 2016 mission will be customer driven, to a destination that will be selected by the customer, and is tentatively planned for Q3 2016.
By August 2011, per version 2.4 of the User's Guide, there had been two small changes to the mission manifest with the first mission now aimed for either an Apollo site or a skylight entrance to a lava tube, and the launch date has been changed to a range: December 2013 to April 2014.
Technology development
Astrobotic is developing both a lunar lander and a rover.The company will provide "communications
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
, power, thermal control
Temperature control
Temperature control is a process in which change of temperature of a space is measured or otherwise detected, and the passage of heat energy into or out of the space is adjusted to achieve a desired average temperature....
and pointing services" but the power, thermal control and comm on the lander is negotiable dependent on customer needs.
Lander
spacecraft dry mass total payload massPower, telemetry and command
- Power: 537 W average landed power, 1500 watt-hours (5,400,000 J) battery pack energy storage
- Communications: 10 W transmitted power over S-band with Reed-Solomon coding, CCSDS compliant, 10 kbps command uplinkUplinkA telecommunications link is generally one of several types of information transmission paths such as those provided by communication satellites to connect two points on earth.-Uplink:...
, 380 kbps telemetry/data downlink
Rover
tall by 1 metres (3.3 ft) wide rover. rover mass- up to 110 kilograms (242.5 lb) rover payload mass
- Endurance on the lunar surface: three months
Mobility wheel base track width height speed
- 20 degreees maximum incline traversal maximum obstacle
Power, telemetry and command
- Power: 140 W average power, 273 watt-hours (982,800 J) battery pack energy storage
- Communications: 10 W transmitted power over S-band with Reed-Solomon coding, CCSDS compliant, 10 kbps command uplinkUplinkA telecommunications link is generally one of several types of information transmission paths such as those provided by communication satellites to connect two points on earth.-Uplink:...
, 60 kbps telemetry/data downlink, redundant antennas.
Imaging
- 1280 x 720 camera resolution
- 30 frames per second
- 70 degree field of view
Key people
- Red Whittaker, chairman and chief technical officerChief technical officerA chief technology officer is an executive-level position in a company or other entity whose occupant is focused on scientific and technological issues within an organization....
- David Gump, presidentPresidentA president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...