A prototype Moon robot is roaming the hills around Pittsburgh, being tested for Astrobotic Technology’s expedition to win the Google Lunar X Prize. The rover’s May 2010 launch will kick off the Tranquility TrekTM mission to respectfully explore the Apollo 11 site where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history four decades ago.

The robot is the first of several robotic scouts that will explore the Moon’s high-interest areas on a commercial basis, collecting information that is needed immediately – creating specialized maps and collecting critical data that governments and companies require now to design future outposts.

At the Apollo 11 site, it will document how materials there have weathered during 40 years of solar and cosmic radiation and micrometeorite bombardment. Understanding what materials survived the best is key information to help the designers of future lunar settlements. Knowing how often a patch of Moon is hit by micrometeorites is central to designing space suits and habitats that will keep explorers safe. (On Earth, small meteorites burn up before reaching the ground but on the Moon there’s no atmosphere to protect astronauts from this risk.)

The robot’s twin wide-field cameras will build a 3D terrain model to help it navigate away from hazards, and historic Apollo boot prints will be programmed as the most important “hazards to avoid.” Safe exploration also is ensured by a three-person team that will direct the robot – a driver, a navigator and a supervisor – with fresh teams rotated in every two hours.

A continuing series of missions

Subsequent missions will explore the Moon’s poles, where national space programs aim to exploit the polar regions’ resources – persistent sunlight and potential water ice in deep craters never warmed by the Sun. Near-continuous sunlight at the poles both provides solar power and limits the huge temperature extremes that equatorial sites experience during their two-week days and two-week nights. The first Astrobotic robot, going to Apollo 11, will be roasted by temperatures hotter than boiling water at lunar noontime. The robot will go into hibernation when night falls and temperatures fall lower than liquid nitrogen. Astrobotic will listen for a signal at the next dawn, but the night’s extreme cold will likely fracture too many electronic components for the robot to function again.

Avoiding the equatorial extremes – and lack of solar power during a two-week night – is why the world’s space agencies are headed for the Moon’s poles. The other potential reward at the poles would be the confirmation of water ice in the permanently dark craters there. The fleet of satellites now orbiting the Moon will greatly expand our knowledge about this possible resource. But confirming water’s existence and how it might be recovered on an economic basis requires surface robots like those planned by Astrobotic.

Leaders in robotics, space and business

Astrobotic Technology was founded by Dr. Red Whittaker, a world leader in advanced field robotics and a long time visionary for lunar robotic systems. His management team is lead by CEO John Kohut, formerly a senior manager at Raytheon Missile Systems, directing their NASA architecture definition contract on innovative ways to return to the Moon. President David Gump directs the company’s marketing, as a decades-long leader in the commercialization of space, including the first TV spot shot on the International Space Station. CFO Mark Kiley brings the expertise gained from $2 billion of investment activity with selling, buying and advising roles.

Astrobotic integrates the engineering, technical and mission capabilities from three prestigious academic and industry organizations: Carnegie Mellon University, The University of Arizona and Raytheon Company. The three institutions have applied their own resources internally to a fast start prototyping the landing and rover. Collectively they have expended $2.3 million on design and fabrication of prototypes – in addition to hundreds of millions of dollars previously invested in developing technologies in robotics, precision navigation and precision propulsion.

For more information, visit the Astrobotic web site: www.astrobotictech.com