Monthly Archives: July 2010

Astrobotic is developing lightweight robotic excavators for the Moon. These machines enable mining rich and accessible deposits of ice and other volatiles buried near craters at the lunar poles, delivering resources to produce propellant, thus making future space exploration sustainable. Low mass machines in low gravity environments can only produce limited traction with which to… {read more}

The “Black Magic” test article, which will simulate the attitude control system on the Astrobotic lander, is now populated with most of its control hardware and the solenoid valves which will control the compressed air that substitutes for actual rocket thrusters during the simulation. Shown below is the top of the test article. The image… {read more}

The Astrobotic spacecraft/lander requires an attitude control system (ACS) to keep itself oriented correctly on the flight to the Moon and during the nerve-wracking descent to the surface. “Black Magic” is the development system to lest the ACS’ sensors and algorithms with cold gas thrusters in place of the hot gas thrusters that will be… {read more}

The composite structure of the rover and lander will be baked with heat coming directly from the Sun, and reflected up from the hot lunar soil. To reflect as much radiation as possible, the Astrobotic team is experimenting with bonding a top Mylar foil layer on to the composite sandwich of carbon fiber fabric and… {read more}