Monthly Archives: May 2010

Astrobotic and its partners at Carnegie Mellon University presented their technical developments several times this week at the NASA exploration workshop in Galveston and at Johnson Space Center in Houston, showing advancements in operating throughout the lunar day, surviving hibernation during the long lunar night, and unstoppable mobility solutions. Dr. Red Whittaker, Astrobotic’s chairman and… {read more}

Astrobotic’s Moon robot has begun mobility tests in the high bay of the Gates Computer Science building at Carnegie Mellon University.  This clip shows the first two prototypes out in the field, followed by P3 in the high bay, rolling past the cryogenic freezer, the walk-in oven for curing composite structures, and the vacuum chamber… {read more}

To protect the rover’s motors from the blistering heat of the lunar day, they are mounted inside the rover’s body. (This isn’t necessary in Mars’ chilly atmosphere; motors are placed out in the individual wheel hubs.) However, the motors’ gear trains eventually must emerge from the rover body to connect with the chain drives on… {read more}

The team has added key components to the rover’s interior, readying it for the first roll this week. The view above shows the rover interior with an IMU (inertial measurement unit) installed at the base of the camera mast, and the two small silvery motors and their larger golden yellow gear housings on either side.… {read more}