Astrobotic Lunar X-Prize mission: lunar S. pole

[Dr Mordrid]

SpaceX, Astrobotics & Carnegie-Mellon University are going to the moon. I'm hearing that the rover will return HD video and be using low cost/low mass boards based on the Intel Atom processor.

Extra tidbit: SpaceX just got their environmental clearances to launch both the Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy from Vandenberg AFB's Space LaunchComplex-4 East (SLC-4E) in California. Sounds like 10 launches per year, equally divided begween them. First launches shoul happen in late 2012.

Astrobotics main....

Astrobotics presser....

Astrobotic Technology Annouces Lunar Mission on SpaceX Falcon 9

February 6, 2011 – 4:00 am

PITTSBURGH, PA – February 6, 2011 – Astrobotic Technology Inc. today announced it has signed a contract with SpaceX to launch Astrobotic’s robotic payload to the Moon on a Falcon 9. The expedition will search for water and deliver payloads, with the robot narrating its adventure while sending 3D video. The mission could launch as soon as December 2013.

The Falcon 9 upper stage will sling Astrobotic on a four-day cruise to the Moon. Astrobotic will then orbit the moon to align for landing. The spacecraft will land softly, precisely and safely using technologies pioneered by Carnegie Mellon University for guiding autonomous cars. The rover will explore for three months, operate continuously during the lunar days, and hibernate through the lunar nights. The lander will sustain payload operations with generous power and communications.

“The mission is the first of a serial campaign,” said Dr. William “Red” Whittaker, chairman of Astrobotic Technology and founder of the university’s Field Robotics Center. “Astrobotic’s missions will pursue new resources, deliver rich experiences, serve new customers and open new markets. Spurred further by incentives, contracts, and the Google Lunar X-Prize, this is a perfect storm for new exploration.”

“The moon has economic and scientific treasures that went undiscovered during the Apollo era, and our robot explorers will spearhead this new lunar frontier,” said David Gump, president of Astrobotic Technology. “The initial mission will bank up to $24 million in Google’s Lunar X-Prize, Florida’s $2 million launch bonus, and NASA’s $10 million landing contract while delivering 240 pounds of payload for space agencies and corporate marketers.”

In addition to Carnegie Mellon, where several prototypes have been built and tested, the mission is supported by industrial partners such as International Rectifier Corporation and corporate sponsors such as Caterpillar Inc. and ANSYS Inc.
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[Dr Mordrid]

Update....

Astrobotic moon mission on track, still raising money

Within two weeks, all the parts of Astrobotic Technology Inc.’s lunar rover and lander should be machined and in the planetary robotics bay at Carnegie Mellon University, and, in two months, the vehicle should be in California undergoing structural integrity testing. It’s all part of the start-up's mission to the moon.

The company, one of the competitors in the Google Lunar X Prize and a spin-out of CMU, is also on a fundraising mission looking to investors for roughly $5 million in series A funds.

CEO and legendary CMU roboticist Red Whittaker, and company president David Gump gave an update on the company Monday night at the inaugural Investing in Innovation presentation by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law’s Innovation Practice Institute. The Planetary Robotics Lab — a large garage bay that looks like you would expect, clean, shiny and full of complicated-looking equipment — played host.

The company has so far received $11.5 million in contracts with NASA, as well as cash and in-kind support of $4.2 million from project partners such as Alcoa, ANSYS, Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Investors are needed, Gump said, to bridge some of the timing challenges between payment milestones that are attached to the federal contracts.

For those that don’t remember, Astrobotic was created to not only go after the Google Lunar X Prize, but also to lead the way to the commercialization of space travel. The company has already booked a spot on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and the launch could be as soon as December 2013. It all depends on customers — who are paying Astrobotic to carry payloads — and when they can get those loads ready to fly.

“The Falcon 9 kicks us to the moon, after this lets go, we either hit the moon or go flying out into space,” joked Chief Engineer John Thornton, and then, striking a more serious note, he said “we intend to land.”
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[Dr Mordrid]

Link....

Project at Carnegie Mellon is to put a robot on moon

William ″Red″ Whittaker is still shooting for the moon.

But Whittaker, a Carnegie Mellon University robotics professor and CEO of Astrobotic Technology Inc., says his team has pushed back its plans to land a robot on the moon by a year — to May 2015 — to tailor a robot suited to the expedition's new destination: the lunar south pole.

The CMU/Astrobotic team is competing to claim a portion of a multimillion-dollar prize for landing a robot on the moon. The team's new plan calls for a robot prospector to drill for ice samples at the moon's south pole to try to confirm the existence of water there, a possibility lunar orbiters and a lunar penetrator have strongly suggested in recent years.

″It is high-risk and high-return,″ Whittaker said.

His team is among 26, including one from Penn State University, that are competing to claim a portion of the Google Lunar X prize, which will go to the first team to land a robot on the moon, make it travel 500 meters and transmit video to earth.

Prize organizers extended the deadline for the contest several times, most recently to December 2015.

The CMU/Astrobotic team built and tested its lunar lander. Last year Astrobotic signed a contract for a $60 million space shot with the privately owned Space X company. Along the way, the company picked up $610,000 in NASA contracts.

Astrobotic president David Gump said confirming water at the poles would be a major discovery that could point the way to the production of rocket fuel on the moon — water is a critical component — and the use of the moon as a fueling and launching point for further space exploration.

″The big question is: How can you do exploration at an affordable price? The key to that is being off-planet. If we can get propellant for a Mars trip on the moon, it will really make getting to Mars much cheaper,″ Gump said.

Going to the south pole of the moon means the trip can occur only during a one-month window when the cold, dark region has a small amount of light. Whittaker said the robot will have to be slightly larger and stronger than originally envisioned.

But he's excited about the possibilities inherent in a lunar polar mission.

″There is no more significant deliberate discovery that a robot can achieve in a near-term mission than to confirm the existence of ice at the poles of the moon. ... Given the life opportunity of a landing on the moon, why not make it count?″ Whittaker said.

[Evildead666]

Best way to get things done. Get the prototypes at the ready