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Monthly Archives: October 2008
MSNBC/Space.com – A private group planning to launch a moon rover to the famed Apollo 11 landing site in a bid to win a $20 million prize announced an ambitious plan Thursday to send five more spacecraft to explore the lunar poles. The Pittsburgh, Pa.-based firm Astrobotic Technology, Inc., led by Carnegie Mellon University roboticist… {read more}
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CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – October 30, 2008 – At a meeting of worldwide Moon exploration experts, Astrobotic Technology Inc. today unveiled its plans for a series of robotic expeditions to build a lunar data library. “Astrobotic will robotically explore the Moon’s high-interest areas on a commercial basis, collecting information required to design future outposts and… {read more}
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Results from the Japanese lunar orbiter that no ice lakes exist at the lunar poles were what most experts expected it to find. The readings of elevated hydrogen (indicating H2O) at the poles from the US Lunar Prospector satellite in 1998 were at levels that suggested an ice-to-dirt concentration of perhaps 1% with the ice crystals “gardened” into the soil by billions of years of micrometerorite impacts.
The international fleet of satellites now gathering at the Moon have a host of sensors to investigate the ice potential, and over the next year a much clearer picture will emerge.
Surface rovers, such as those Astrobotic will operate, will be able to directly confirm the presence of water (and/or other volatiles delivered by cometary impacts) as well as whether there are local concentrations of volatiles that would be more rewarding to recover. Water split into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket propellant would vastly improve the economics of lunar exploration and settlement — returning spacecraft could refuel on the Moon rather than carry all their fuel with them from Earth.
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Complex-curved composite
Composite layup materials bend easily, so it is straightforward to fabricate geometries like plates and cylinders. These geometries are tractable because they require no warping or stretching of the layup materials. Alternately, layup materials do not warp, shear or stretch easily. Hence, it is more difficult to fabricate bulges and saddles that require in-plane membrane deformation. The mold and layup of the Red Rover’s most complex curve succeed despite the challenges.
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| From AstroboticBlogPhotos |
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Composite craft
The weight savings, strength advantages and design qualities that are achievable with composite materials require substantial craft. Simple skills for simple layups are trivial, but mastery of the art requires disciplined process.
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Glory Shot
The Earth is photoshopped. The robot and terrain are real, taken while testing. This nice shot could almost be a poster.
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| From AstroboticBlogPhotos |
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