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 William "Red" Whittaker, announced plans to launch its
first rover to NASA's Tranquility Base in May 2010 to win the Google
Lunar X Prize competition, the company announced Thursday.
Astrobotic
is one of 14 teams currently in the
running for the prize, an international competition with up to $30 million to
the first privately-funded team capable of landing a mobile spacecraft of the
moon, driving it for a third of a mile (500 meters) and beaming home
high-definition television of the feat. The first team to do so successfully by
Dec. 31, 2010, wins the $20 million first prize. Second place and bonus prizes
each garner about $5 million.
The competition
is sponsored
by Google and managed by the X Prize Foundation of Santa Monica, Calif.
"It was
very clear that it was going to cost more to win the prize than the prize
itself," said David Gump, president of Astrobotic, in a telephone interview.
"So we really needed to provide a coherent strategy for a series of missions
that could benefit investors and get them to come in and fund us up front."
Under the
plan, the inaugural flight would be followed by three more privately-funded
polar rovers, as well as a lander and a moon dozer, to explore the moon for
potential lunar base sites or scan for water ice, according to a white paper
released today. Each of the missions is targeted at various high-interest spots
on the moon, where Astrobotic probes would observe the lunar surface and the
effects of the lunar environment on spacecraft, as well as test technologies
for future exploration.
The data
from each Astrobotic
moon shot will be added to a core library and be available for customers
for engineering purposes or scientific research aimed at future exploration,
Gump said.
"As we do
additional missions, it grows richer and more valuable to the space agencies
and the companies that would license access to it," he told SPACE.com.
Astrobotic
released the new report at a joint meeting of the International Lunar
Exploration Group, Space Resources Roundtable and the Lunar Exploration
Analysis Group in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Beyond
the Lunar X Prize
Astrobotic's
first mission, the Tranquility Trek, will feature a four-wheeled rover equipped
with cameras and other sensors to observe the lunar surface and Apollo 11
landing site. In addition to returning high-definition television views of the
moon, the 132-pound (60-kg) rover is expected to study how the remains of
NASA's Apollo 11 lander Eagle have fared since the July 1969 moon shot and
measure how lunar regolith builds up on solar panels, Astrobotic officials
said.
Great care
would be taken to preserve Tranquility Base for its historical significance
during the mission, Gump said, adding that telephoto camera lenses and smart
software would help the mission avoid treading on the boot prints left by
astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
According
to Astrobotic's lunar exploration plan, two small rovers would follow the
Tranquility Trek in 2011 and 2012 on separate ice-hunting expeditions along
crater rims of the moon's polar regions. The first would visit the south pole's
Shackleton Crater, a potential site for future NASA moon bases, while the other
would visit a crater rim around the north lunar pole.
A lander
would follow in 2012, touching down at Shackleton Crater for long-term studies
of moonquakes and the lunar environment, Astrobotic officials said. Another
rover would follow in 2013 to actually roll onto the Shackleton Crater floor to
hunt for ice, with a "moon dozer" to follow later that year to test
construction and regolith moving techniques.
Future
rovers may eventually also be tailored from existing designs to seek
mission-specific data requested by customers, Gump said. Astrobotic has a
rocket in mind to launch its future fleet of moon probes, but will announce the
booster provider at a later date, he added.
Astrobotic's
core of technical rover know-how from Carnegie Mellon and its business base for
project management form a steady platform from which to shoot for the moon,
Gump said.
"I think
we'll make this successful, compared to some of the things in the '90s that
didn't work out," he added.
advertisement
