Posted on March 10, 2014, at 5:23 am .
Hartley 2, Close Up This image from the High-Resolution Instrument on NASA’s EPOXI mission spacecraft shows part of the nucleus of comet Hartley 2. The sun is illuminating the nucleus from the right. A distinct cloud of individual particles is visible. This image was obtained on Nov. 4, 2010, the day the EPOXI mission spacecraft made its closest approach to the comet. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
NASA has selected Honeybee Robotics of New York City for two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II awards for work on a comet surface sample return mission and the development of a nano-drill that could be used on that mission.
“The proposed Phase II investigation will focus on the development of spacecraft systems required to obtain a sample from the nucleus of a comet, hermetically seal the sample within a capsule, and return the sealed sample to an orbiting spacecraft which can return the sample to Earth,” according to the proposal summary.
Continue reading ‘Honeybee Robotics Selected for SBIR Phase II Awards’
Posted on March 8, 2014, at 8:45 am .
Resource Prospector Mission field test in Hawaii. (Credit: NASA)
NASA has selected Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II award to facilitate the better planning and execution of resource extraction missions on the moon, Mars and other worlds.
“The proposed work develops a computer-aided mission planning tool that balances the competing demands of efficient routes, scientific information gain, and rover constraints (e.g., kinematics, communication, power, thermal, and terrainability) to generate and analyze optimized routes between sequences of locations,” according to the project’s technical abstract.
The company says that the planning tool would be directly applicable to the planned Lunar Resource Prospector Mission, which is a joint NASA-CSA effort to extra volatiles on the moon. The mission is targeted for launch later in this decade.
Continue reading ‘Astrobotic Selected for NASA SBIR Phase II Award’
Posted on February 21, 2014, at 1:33 pm .
A Xombie technology demonstrator from Masten Space Systems, Mojave, Calif., ascends from its pad at Mojave Air and Space Port on a test for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The vehicle is a vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing experimental rocket. It is being used in collaboration with NASA Dryden Flight Research Center to evaluate performance of JPL’s Fuel Optimal Large Divert Guidance (G-FOLD), a new algorithm for planetary pinpoint landing of spacecraft. Image (Credit: NASA/Masten)
Greetings from the Antelope Valley Board of Trade’s Business Outlook Conference!
During lunch, Mojave Air and Space Port Stu Witt announced that Masten Space Systems successfully flew a vehicle this morning. He said the vehicle went to an altitude of 300 meters, translated over and touched down safely on another landing pad.
Witt did not say which vehicle it was, but I’m guessing it was a Xombie. Masten has been working this week with Astrobotic Technology to for test the company’s landing sensor package and software system for its Griffin lander, which it plans to send to the moon in October 2015.
Astrobotic is a competitor in the Google Lunar X Prize, which has prizes for the first private company to land a rover on the moon.
Posted on February 19, 2014, at 7:45 am .
LOS ANGELES, CA, Feb. 19, 2014 (GLXP PR) — The Google Lunar XPRIZE announced today the five international teams selected as finalists for Milestone Prizes, with a total purse of $6 million to be awarded this year. After reviewing 33 total submissions, the nine member independent judging panel selected 11 submissions from the following teams: Astrobotic (US), Moon Express (US), Hakuto (Japan), Part-Time-Scientists (Germany), and Team Indus (India).
The Milestone Prizes were added to recognize the technological achievements and the associated financial hurdles faced by the teams as they vie for the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE, a global competition to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon.
Continue reading ‘Google Lunar XPRIZE Selects Five Teams to Compete for $6 Million in Milestone’
Posted on February 17, 2014, at 9:33 am .
Pittsburgh, 17th February 2014 (Astrobotic PR) – Singapore-based ASTROSCALE PTE. LTD. has contracted with Astrobotic Technology to send the Lunar Dream time capsule on its October 2015 lunar mission. The time capsule contains the popular Japanese sports drink, Pocari Sweat, which is sold across Asia and in much of the Middle East. The first commercial beverage to be delivered to the Moon’s surface, the Lunar Dream time capsule will be placed on the lunar surface by Astrobotic’s Griffin lander after it touches down in the Lacus Mortis region of the Moon.
Continue reading ‘Astrobotic to Deliver Lunar Dream Time Capsule to the Moon’
Posted on February 6, 2014, at 5:14 am .
NASA Centennial Challenges Program
Small Spacecraft Challenges Request for Information
Full RFI:
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=ec040a31b16194f877d1034ccefdda40&tab=core&_cview=0
Overview
The Centennial Challenges program is seeking input on two challenges being considered for start in 2014. Both challenges would be to design, build, and deliver flight-qualified small spacecraft capable of advanced operations near the moon and beyond.
The first challenge will focus on finding innovative solutions to deep space communications with small spacecraft, while the second focuses on primary propulsion for small spacecraft. Together, these challenges are expected to contribute to opening deep space exploration to non-government spacecraft for the first time.
The proposed challenges would be NASA’s first prize competitions demonstrated and competed in deep space and potentially would be carried into trans-lunar trajectory of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) on the first launch (EM-1) of the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion planned for late 2017.
Continue reading ‘Centennial Challenges Issues Deep Space CubeSat RFI’
Posted on February 4, 2014, at 11:29 am .
A Xombie technology demonstrator from Masten Space Systems, Mojave, Calif., ascends from its pad at Mojave Air and Space Port on a test for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The vehicle is a vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing experimental rocket. It is being used in collaboration with NASA Dryden Flight Research Center to evaluate performance of JPL’s Fuel Optimal Large Divert Guidance (G-FOLD), a new algorithm for planetary pinpoint landing of spacecraft. Image (Credit: NASA/Masten)
MOJAVE, Calif. (Astrobotic PR) — When Astrobotic’s Griffin lander descends to the lunar surface, it will precisely target a small landing ellipse (a small area where it might land) and autonomously maneuver to avoid hazards such as rocks bigger than 25cm and slopes greater than 15°. In last month’s blog post, we introduced the landing sensor package and the concept of map registration – a technique that matches (“registers”) a location in an in-flight image to the same location on a map.
This week, an Astrobotic team led by Kevin Peterson is headed out to Masten Space Systems, located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, CA, to fly the landing sensor package and software system on the Masten Xombie suborbital rocket.
Continue reading ‘Astrobotic Begins Testing on Masten Vehicle in Mojave’
Posted on January 30, 2014, at 5:06 am .
Resource Prospector Mission field test in Hawaii. (Credit: NASA)
This would be a really cool mission:
Following a series of reconnaissance missions that found hydrogen and then water on the Moon, NASA is laying the groundwork for a lunar rover that would scout for subsurface volatiles and extract them for processing.
The heart of the proposed (RPM) is the Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen & Lunar Volatile Extraction (RESOLVE) payload, a technology development initiative that predates its official start two years ago in NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate’s Advanced Exploration Systems Division.
Continue reading ‘NASA, CSA Plan Lunar Water Extraction Mission’
Posted on January 26, 2014, at 8:29 am .
The moon rising over Half Moon Bay, California on Halloween 2009. (Credit: Douglas Messier)
NASA will host a media teleconference at 12:30 p.m. EST Monday, Jan. 27, to discuss the Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (Lunar CATALYST) initiative.
Continue reading ‘NASA to Discuss Lunar CATALYST Commercial Lunar Lander Initiative’
Posted on January 22, 2014, at 8:00 am .
BOULDER, CO, January 22, 2014 (Golden Spike PR) – The Golden Spike Company—the world’s first enterprise planning to undertake human lunar expeditions for countries, corporations and individuals— announced today a partnership with Draper Laboratory to examine the range of landing sites that Golden Spike can offer for its commercial human missions to the Moon.
Draper provides advanced Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) systems, high-performance, reliable space science instruments, and processing systems for NASA and the U.S. military. Draper provided similar landing site selection studies to NASA’s Constellation lunar landing program.
Continue reading ‘Golden Spike Partners With Draper Lab to Conduct Lunar Landing Site Studies’
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