Mojave, CA, August 15, 2023 – Astrobotic announced today it has begun work on a 100mx100m high-fidelity 3D test field that will mimic the topography and optical properties of the Moon’s surface. This lunar surface analogue test site called the Lunar Surface Proving Ground (LSPG) will be used for a variety of test campaigns, from precise lunar landing technologies like LiDAR scanners and navigation algorithms to lunar rovers and other robotic systems. In addition to providing a realistic lunar topography for spacecraft and rover sensors and systems, this test field will offer a facility for simulating the extreme lighting conditions encountered at the lunar poles.
LSPG will first enhance Astrobotic’s capabilities for testing innovative Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) technologies aboard Xodiac, its suborbital rocket lander. Xodiac is currently scheduled to fly four test campaigns over the next year that will demonstrate high-priority EDL systems that could support government and commercial lunar landings. The LSPG will enhance terrestrial testing for planetary landings and further technology development before spaceflight.
The LSPG will debut as the test site for NASA’s Nighttime Precision Landing Challenge, part of the TechLeap Prize, later this year. In that challenge, three winning teams will fly their sensing payloads aboard Xodiac to simulate landing on the Moon during the lunar night. TechLeap is sponsored by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program.
“The accuracy of the LSPG’s terrain will allow our customers to test their technologies using the closest physical copy of lunar terrain available on Earth. We already have four Xodiac campaigns booked to fly their payloads over the test field, and we’re excited to see how else we can leverage the LSPG to advance the readiness of other critical technologies,” says Jenna Edwards, Director of Propulsion & Test for Astrobotic.
Astrobotic designed the LSPG to simulate a region of the Moon’s South Pole because the area has attracted great scientific interest within the lunar community. The terrain for the LSPG, which will be excavated and covered in a layer of solid, unfinished stucco, is modeled after an actual map of the lunar surface scanned by Astrobotic’s LunaRay system. Maps of the region have already been used to inform flight plans and detect hazards for Griffin’s mission to the Moon, and the LSPG will serve as another dynamic verification method for flight systems.
“LunaRay is an industry-leading capability that Astrobotic has been perfecting for about a decade. LunaRay produces some of the highest fidelity maps of the Moon we’ve seen to date and we’re using it to construct the LSPG. LunaRay will model the LSPG after the South Pole landing site for Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission One, carrying NASA’s water-hunting VIPER rover to the lunar surface in late 2024,” says Dan Hendrickson, Vice President of Business Development for Astrobotic.
Astrobotic plans to unveil the completed LSPG later this year at Astrobotic’s Propulsion & Test facility in Mojave, California.
Astrobotic Wins $34.6M for Power Demo Mission on the Moon
Award from NASA will demonstrate the first transmission of high voltage power across the lunar surface, and will result in a major advancement of Astrobotic’s LunaGrid power service
Astrobotic announced today that the company won a $34.6M NASA Tipping Point contract to demonstrate power transmission on the lunar surface. The award will result in a demonstration on the Moon called LunaGrid-Lite, which will transmit power from a lunar lander to a tethered rover.
During this demo, an Astrobotic 6U CubeRover will unreel 1 kilometer of cable from an Astrobotic lunar lander and receive the first high voltage power transmitted through a cable across the lunar surface. The demonstration will serve as a pilot for Astrobotic’s LunaGrid service, which will deliver commercial power service by the Watt to future customers on the lunar surface.
The full LunaGrid system will be a power generation and distribution service that could utilize the 20-meter-tall Vertical Solar Array Technology (VSAT) currently being developed under another NASA contract at Astrobotic. In the LunaGrid-Lite demo, the lander’s solar arrays will play the part of the VSAT in generating power. Following landing, a CubeRover carrying a spool of specially designed cable will egress from the lander and deploy the cable to the lunar surface. Finally, the system will transmit 1 kW of power from the lander’s solar arrays through the cable to the CubeRover. Sensors throughout the payload will characterize and verify the system’s performance.
“LunaGrid-Lite will pave the way for power generation and distribution services on the Moon, and change the game for lunar surface systems like landers, rovers, habitats, science suits, and in-situ resource utilization pilot plants. With renewable, uninterrupted commercial power service, both crewed and robotic operations can be made sustainable for long-term operations,” said John Thornton, Astrobotic CEO.
The 6U CubeRover will be delivered on an upcoming Astrobotic lander mission as early as 2026 and will push Astrobotic’s lunar power service, LunaGrid, past the commercial tipping point by advancing three critical gap technologies – a high voltage power converter, cable, and cable stowage and deployment system.
With all major elements of LunaGrid now funded, Astrobotic plans to deploy the service before the end of the decade to begin serving the Artemis program, CLPS, international space agencies, and commercial businesses on the Moon.
LSPG will first enhance Astrobotic’s capabilities for testing innovative Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) technologies aboard Xodiac, its suborbital rocket lander. Xodiac is currently scheduled to fly four test campaigns over the next year that will demonstrate high-priority EDL systems that could support government and commercial lunar landings. The LSPG will enhance terrestrial testing for planetary landings and further technology development before spaceflight.
The LSPG will debut as the test site for NASA’s Nighttime Precision Landing Challenge, part of the TechLeap Prize, later this year. In that challenge, three winning teams will fly their sensing payloads aboard Xodiac to simulate landing on the Moon during the lunar night. TechLeap is sponsored by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program.
“The accuracy of the LSPG’s terrain will allow our customers to test their technologies using the closest physical copy of lunar terrain available on Earth. We already have four Xodiac campaigns booked to fly their payloads over the test field, and we’re excited to see how else we can leverage the LSPG to advance the readiness of other critical technologies,” says Jenna Edwards, Director of Propulsion & Test for Astrobotic.
Astrobotic designed the LSPG to simulate a region of the Moon’s South Pole because the area has attracted great scientific interest within the lunar community. The terrain for the LSPG, which will be excavated and covered in a layer of solid, unfinished stucco, is modeled after an actual map of the lunar surface scanned by Astrobotic’s LunaRay system. Maps of the region have already been used to inform flight plans and detect hazards for Griffin’s mission to the Moon, and the LSPG will serve as another dynamic verification method for flight systems.
“LunaRay is an industry-leading capability that Astrobotic has been perfecting for about a decade. LunaRay produces some of the highest fidelity maps of the Moon we’ve seen to date and we’re using it to construct the LSPG. LunaRay will model the LSPG after the South Pole landing site for Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission One, carrying NASA’s water-hunting VIPER rover to the lunar surface in late 2024,” says Dan Hendrickson, Vice President of Business Development for Astrobotic.
Astrobotic plans to unveil the completed LSPG later this year at Astrobotic’s Propulsion & Test facility in Mojave, California.