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. 

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12/8/10 SpaceX: SPLASHDOWN!!!

-Dragon capsule after splashdown in pacific ocean. Photo by Mike Altenhofen-

Flawless Victory!!!

  

I dedicate the name of this post to a tweet @SpaceXer sent on December 8th, which for me signified the end of the historic launch which happened that very day. SpaceX had launched their Falcon 9 rocket for the second time flawlessly. Not only that, the Falcon 9 also had the mission to deliver the Dragon capsule which sat atop the rocket into low earth orbit. From there, the Dragon capsule had to make 2 full orbits around the Earth, and come back down to earth, which involves re-entering our atmosphere safely, and deploying parachutes correctly in order to provide the safe trip all the way back down. All done flawlessly. On top of that, 8 free-flying payloads were also put on the Falcon 9 and were deployed safely including the first army-built satellite to fly in 50 years. For safety reasons, on almost every system and component (parachutes, reaction control thrusters, avionics etc...) there was some level of redundancy to ensure that if some part failed, Dragon could still make it home safely. Amazingly, not a single redundant system was necessary since all systems worked nominally...nominally? I guess that is another way of saying FLAWLESSLY!

Why was this a historic launch? 

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11/22/10 Another First for SpaceX...

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Great work SpaceX!

After a successful test launch of their Falcon 9 vehicle, SpaceX now looks to launch their second Falcon 9 vehicle, with a dragon space capsule on top. The FAA has just issued a license to SpaceX stating that they are able to allow their Dragon space capsule to re-enter Earths atmosphere, and land in the pacific ocean. Re-entry of a spacecraft has never been attempted by a commercial company, due to the complexity and danger involved.

The significant part of all this...

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