Monthly Archives: June 2010

The Astrobotic lander has evolved to an all-composite design, with new locations to attach third-party payloads.  The Payload Specifications document has been updated and can be downloaded here. The all-composite design achieves gains in stiffness and reductions in mass.  The added stiffness raises the frequency at which it resonates, so that lower-frequency vibrations from the… {read more}

The Astrobotic Moon robot, Red Rover, is profiled in this shot taken at a Pittsburgh-area slag heap (waste rock left over from a steel mill), a site selected for its resemblance to the lunar surface.

This week the Astrobotic team deployed Red Rover’s third prototype in a Pittsburgh-area slag heap to begin evaluating its ability to handle outdoor terrain with loose rocks and challenging slopes. (Slag heaps are fields of waste rock left over from the refining of iron ore at steel mills.) This lunar-like terrain enabled a great photo… {read more}