Astrobotic Technology Inc.
Astrobotic Red Rover at LaFarge Slag Heap
The Team to Beat...
As of February 17th, 2011, 29 private teams are now competing for the Google Lunar X Prize. Each team is trying to be the first one to send a rover to the moon, land it, and have it move around the surface and take HD video. This competition started in 2007, and each team has slowly made progress on their rover/lander designs and planning their mission. So what is happening now with the competition that gets me very excited? One team in particular has really stepped up to move the competition forward, maybe faster than other teams were expecting (or hoping...). Astrobotic Technology Inc., founded by Red Whittaker, is really bringing attention to the competition and their company when they partnered with SpaceX to launch their rover on a Falcon 9 vehicle. Not only do they have the potential to win the competition, but they have the chance to make research trips to the moon commonplace.
In this post, we will look at Astrobotic Technology Inc., the founder, their history in robotics, and why they have a great chance of winning the Google Lunar X Prize with their vehicle, the Red Rover.
Red Whittaker - The Founder
If you have watched the above video, you get a real sense of what this man is capable of in robotics. Dr. William "Red" Whittaker is what I would call an "experts expert" in the field of robotics. Besides his work with Astrobotic Inc., he works at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) where he is the director of the Field Robotics Center, and Fredkin Professor of Robotics in The Robotics Institute, also at CMU. He has won numerous awards, authored/co-authored around 200 publications, and has 16 patents. He has also won over 80 contracts from NASA, and the Department of Defense. His work with robots that can navigate unknown terrain helped him win the 2007 Urban Challenge put on by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which involved driving an SUV autonomously through city traffic succssfully (mentioned in video). With the announcement of the Google Lunar X Prize, it drove him to found Astrobotic Inc., which is his most ambitious project to date.
The Company
The major idea that separates Astrobotic from most of the competing teams, is they built a long term business plan into their competition strategy. When Red came into this competition, he wasn't just thinking about a one off mission to the moon, he was thinking about the future of Moon research. He thought wouldn't it be great to develop cheap, functional, robotic systems that could carry out great scientific research constantly on the moon? My answer to that is, Yes! There is so much we still don't understand about the moon, especially regarding resources we could utilize here on Earth. Our knowledge of the Moon would grow exponentially if we could constantly acquire data, and that is fundamental to Astrobotics long term success. To help fund the future of the company, not only will Astrobotic sell data, they are selling media they collect on their initial mission, offering sponsorship opportunities, plus carrying 230lbs of cargo for other commercial companies, and researchers. They have also gained a contract from NASA worth 10 million for data Astrobotic will collect. In a news release last year, Astrobotic gave the detail of what NASA wanted from them:
"NASA awarded its contract under the Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) program. It will pay Astrobotic for data about how to land at a precise location, which hasn’t been done by previous Mars and Moon robots, as well as how to avoid last-minute obstacles like boulders and small craters unseen from orbit. The NASA contract also pays for information about how the Astrobotic robot survives the lunar night – two weeks of deep freeze as cold as liquid nitrogen. Each accomplishment is worth $500,000 to $2.5 million. Astrobotic can collect up to $1.1 million with data delivered prior to launch, and the remainder after its spacecraft lands."
Future missions will grow in scope and complexity, and they will have various robots suited to various missions.Here is a quick look at some of the future missions planned by Astrobotic (For more info on these missions, click on the photo to visit original article):
They have stated confidently that they will be able to win the Google Lunar X Prize by being the first to reach the moon by April of 2013 (although X Prize projects a winner by 2015). Their initial mission to the moon mentioned above, is called "Tranquility Trek," which is the mission they hope will win them the Google Lunar X Prize. Some detail of the mission was already mentioned, but lets look at the mission more in detail.
Mission: Tranquility Trek
Here is a video and summary below of the Tranquility Trek mission.
The mission will accomplish the following:
1. Have the lander with rover launched from Cape Canaveral (launching from cape canaveral scores them an extra 2 million unrelated to the X Prize purse) aboard a commercial rocket (SpaceX Falcon 9), including an extra 230 pounds of cargo from commercial companies/partners. The carrying of cargo is not part of the competition, this is something they want and are able to do with the use of the Falcon 9 rocket.
2. Rovers navigation and computer system will help guide itself into a lunar orbit, and slowly make its way down to the lunar surface.
3.Touch down lander with rover on the Lunar Surface within 1-2 km of planned target.
4. Rover will move away from lander, and move 500 meters across the surface, while capturing High Definition 3D Video.
5. Rover will scan the horizon to locate Apollo 11 landing site, and take pictures and video to document how it has weathered over 40 years.
6. The rover will explore for two weeks before the sun sets, and the rover will try and survive the lunar night.
7. When the sun rises again, the rover will try to reboot and keep itself moving (they are skeptical whether or not this is possible).
8. If this is all done by 2013 when they project, they stand to collect over $24 million from GLXP, $10 million NASA, and $2 million from the state of Florida, totalling $36 million in prizes.
Red Rover
This is the picture of a prototype of the Astrobotic Rover, which is called "Red Rover." It stands 5.5 feet tall, and generates over 120 Watts of power. This robot has a unique body style that deals with the problem of temperatures on the moon pretty well. When exposed to the sun, the robot will be forced to endure temperatures near 270°F. Astrobotic had to find a way of radiating that heat away from the rover, so one half of the cone shaped body is white, and will always face away from the sun to radiate the heat absorbed through the solar panels. The other side features the solar panels which will take all sunlight, and constantly feed the robot its energy. The robot can turn and drive in any direction so the panels always face the sun, and the cooler side is always radiating the heat away. The rover moves at a very slow and steady 5cm per second, so it can cover half a kilometer in 2.7 hours. They have not locked down a structural design for their lander , but they have done a lot of work on the attitude control system which helps guide the robot safely to the surface.
I have to admit...
Although I was extremely excited when this competition was originally announced back in 2007, as the years rolled by, I can say my excitement over this moon race waned (moon...wane...clever huh?). For whatever reason, I did not take the teams seriously, most likely due to a lack of imagination on my part. Although I stayed optimistic that someday we would be able to accomplish this, I was afraid it was farther off than the X Prize thought. After the research I have done on the Astrobotic company, I have renewed excitement and optimism in this competition, and can't wait to see if this team can land on the moon, and build a successful company, the same way Virgin Galactic was born of the Ansari X Prize. Hopefully the X Prize gods can forgive me for having a momentary lapse in faith (no X smiting please!).
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What do you think about Astrobotic Inc.? Make sure to leave a comment!
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Related Websites:
Astrobotic Techonology Inc. Website
Press Release - Astrobotic Technology Announces Lunar Mission on SpaceX Falcon 9
Evadot Podcast #64 - Google Lunar X Prize Team Astrobotic and the SpaceX Factor
4 Comments
Reader Comments (4)
Awesome job putting this together. I learned a couple things and share your enthusiasm!
WIRED Science article ... wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/lunar-x-prize-teams/
Great article, thanks. I too thought the competition was proceeding at too slow a pace to be successful but a couple of things happened when spurred a number of new teams to enter and some of the existing teams to gain credibility:
* NASA essentially doubled the prize money, and did it by providing milestones which could be completed before launch.. this provided a clear capital source and return on investment path.
* Futron did a study (which, admittedly I never did get to read) that claimed there was customers that wanted to fly on these vehicles.
* Tim Pickens got his well respected and established employer to stand up and talk about the competition.
* Astrobotic booked a rocket launch.
And I'm sure there will be many more credibility adding events.
Michael D. - I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading!
Trent W. - Thank you! I have not kept up on the rocket city space pioneers, so it is nice to see that Tim is getting the respect he deserves.
Gaetano M. - Thank you for the link!