Pittsburgh, PA, Sept. 2, 2020: Astrobotic has been awarded two contracts by NASA to support the development of payloads for future delivery on its 4U and 6U CubeRovers—the world’s first line of commercial lunar rovers.
CubeRovers are standardized and scalable, providing planetary surface mobility services that support a variety of scientific and commercial missions. Work for both CubeRovers kicked off this month and will continue through July 2022.
The first US $741,000 contract will fuel work on a novel ultra-wide, non-contact Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) antenna co-developed by Astrobotic and The Ohio State University. The antenna will integrate with a prototype of Astrobotic’s 6U CubeRover, the largest of the CubeRover family, and then test its use on the ground. Useful for both Earth and planetary science applications, the single antenna can be integrated with diverse mobile platforms to better support lightweight, affordable, subsurface science investigations.
The second US$375,000 contract will integrate a neutron detector with a ground prototype of Astrobotic’s mid-size 4U CubeRover. The rover will house neutron-detecting technology developed by Radiation Detection Technologies, and test its use at a lunar surface analogue site. Neutron detectors are a key technology for finding lunar volatiles, like water. The neutron detector onboard the CubeRover will characterize and map the energy distribution of neutrons indicative of the presence of water ice bound in the lunar regolith. This will give scientists clues into where water is concentrated on the lunar surface, and how and when the Moon acquired its water, as well as insight into the inner solar system’s history.
CubeRovers are built in three sizes, 2U, 4U, and 6U, and are based on internationally recognized CubeSat standards to simplify payload integration efforts. The rover trio introduces an off-the-shelf mobile platform for payloads that can host an array of instruments such as spectrometers, neutron detectors, cameras, and other important scientific sensors.
“We are incredibly excited to continue maturing our 4U and 6U CubeRovers in concert with our future payload users. These contracts allow us to support increasingly robust suites of payloads that enable affordable mobility on the lunar surface,” said Michael Provenzano, Astrobotic’s Director of Planetary Mobility.
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