Category Archives: Lunar Rovers

Canada-USA Holiday Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 1-4 July 2022

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Closest Neighbors Canada and USA Advance Mutually Beneficial Moon Missions

North America nations share holiday weekend commemorating national foundations: Canada observes 155 years since Federation on 1 July, while USA observes 246 years since Independence Declaration 4 July; Building on ~500 past space agreements between nations, CSA-ASC to provide robotic grappler Canadarm3 for Lunar Gateway, launching NET Nov 2024, and Canada astronaut to join NASA Artemis 2 crew on mission around Moon NET May 2024; MDA working with Lockheed / GM on unpressurized, driver-optional rover for Artemis surface exploration; Canadensys supplying high definition cameras for International Lunar Observatory Association precursor mission ILO-X

Pictured: CSA-ASC Astronaut David Saint-Jacques, NASA Anne McClain
Credits: NASA

Friday / 1 July 2022

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China and India Working on Spacecraft Technology for Crewed and Automated Moon Exploration

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) prototyping new hydrolox rocket engine for lunar version of ‘New-Generation Manned Launch Vehicle’ / Long March 5DY, with component check, fault detection and ignition tests achieved; Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) advancing Chandrayaan-3 redesign, improving lander legs, sensors and propulsion system, with ongoing testing at ISRO Propulsion Complex in Mahendragiri; China aiming for human Moon landings within 2020’s decade, India 2nd robotic landing attempt likely to occur NET 2023

Credits: CNSA, ISRO

Tuesday / 21 June 2022

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UAE Rashid Rover on Track for November Launch for Moon Landing on ispace HAKUTO-R Mission 1

Deigned by Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre engineers at Dubai ‘Silicon Oasis’, 10-kg Rashid Rover now in France for CNES thermal / vibration testing; Integration with Series 1 Lander to follow at ispace facility in Germany, with arrival of lander / rover at KSC NET September; SpaceX Falcon 9 launch window opening early November; M1 will also carry payloads from JAXA (2-wheeled spheroid rover), Canadensys (2 360° cameras), NGK (solid state battery experiment), Mission Control Space Services (AI flight computer)

Pictured: Emirates Lunar Mission Director Hamad Al Marzooqi
Credits: ispace, MBRSC, Twitter
 
 

Friday / 3 June 2022

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Businesses Develop Moon Infrastructure Technology with Canadian Space Agency Support

CSA-ASC funding 5 companies to advance Lunar Surface Exploration Initiative with 7 studies (~US$200K/ea, $1.4M total) on agricultural science, avionics/comms, mining/ISRU, power; Canadensys (Bolton ON) to study lunar greenhouse, modular rover concepts; MDA (Brampton ON) to study nuclear power generation, autonomous robots / rovers; MPB Communications (Pointe-Claire QC) to study Earth-Moon optical comms, Canadian Space Mining Corporation (Toronto ON) to study lunar prospecting; Honeywell Ltd. of Canada (Ottawa ON) to study Moon surface / orbit communication network

Credits: CSA-ASC, Canadensys, MDA, MPB Communications, Honeywell, Canadian Space Mining Corporation

Tuesday / 26 April 2022

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Japan Enterprises to Offer First Lunar Lander and Rover Insurance for Moon Missions

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance will indemnify HAKUTO-R lander mission sequence beginning NET Q4 2022 for ispace under newly signed MoU, with The Nikkei reporting an expected US$80M coverage level will cost lander companies $8M; Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance offering financial liability protection for mobile payloads that may suffer damage in-transit / on lunar surface with first customer Dymon of Tokyo, whose 498-g lunar rover YAOKI (touted as “world’s smallest lunar rover”) is slated for late 2022 mission with Astrobotic

Credits: ispace, Dymon, MSI, TMN

Tuesday / 1 March 2022

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Space Agencies Looking for Next Generation of Lunar Vehicles May Consider Tapping Electric Car Industry

2 USA commercial teams, 1 composed of Northrop Grumman, AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, Michelin (with Moon workers Harrison Schmitt and Charles Duke serving in advisory roles) and partnership between Lockheed Martin, General Motors compete for contract to build modern Lunar Terrain Vehicle; JAXA works with Nissan and Toyota on electric and hydrogen powered concepts; Researchers at Keck Institute for Space Studies (Caltech) promote utilization of off-the-shelf components from production electric automobiles to minimize R&D cost of bespoke vehicles

Credits: NASA, Northrop Grumman

Friday / 4 February 2022

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India to Launch Chandryaan-3 Lander / Rover in August to Explore Moon South Pole Region

ISRO intends to launch Chandryaan-3 via GSLV Mk 3 NET August, soft-landing near originally planned Chandryaan-2 site; Area is within southern lunar highlands ~160km from Boguslawsky crater, preferred landing site of Roscosmos Luna-25 aiming for 23 July launch, and ~350km from South Pole-Aitken basin, an area currently being investigated by CNSA Yutu-2 rover from Chang’e-4 mission with sample return planned for Chang’e-6 NET 2024; Spectral analysis from Chandrayaan-1 orbiter indicates site is rich in iron (4.2%), magnesium (5.4%), calcium (10%) and titanium (0.3%)

 

Credits: ISRO

Friday / 7 January 2022

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MIT Researchers Investigating Electrostatic / Ion Propulsion Concept for Moon and Asteroid Exploration

With current propulsion technologies capable of operation in atmosphere-free environments limited to chemical rockets and ground-based locomotion, MIT supported by NASA is pioneering novel technique harnessing electrical charge found on such bodies via repulsive effect of Mylar; Initial experiments published in AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets suggest with micro ion booster augmentation sufficient lift to raise a 0.9kg craft 1cm can be achieved; Levitation technique would allow traversing otherwise impassable “very rough, unexplored terrain” per study co-author Paulo Lozano (B)

Also pictured: Oliver Jia-Richards (T); Credits: MIT

Friday / 3 December 2021

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Long-theorized Planetary Hopper Concept to be Tested on Lunar Surface NET Q4 2022

Seeking to overcome range constraints of single-landing craft and speed limitations of ground rovers, international science engineering teams utilizing computer modelling promote alternative rocket ‘hopper’ concept first used on Lunar surface during Surveyor 6 (1967) and Pogo-stick style locomotion; NASA CLPS lunar lander provider Intuitive Machines is to carry Micro-Nova, capable of traversing 2.4km with 900 gram payload capacity, on IM-2 mission near Shackleton Rim; Micro-Nova may allow investigation of otherwise inaccessible PSRs, thought to contain water ice

Credits: NASA, Intuitive Machines

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 29 Oct – 1 Nov 2021

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Artemis Era Robotic / Human Moon Vehicles Being Designed and Manufactured Internationally

NASA to construct its first autonomous Moon rover, VIPER, at JSC late 2022, with landing near Nobile Crater NET late 2023; VIPER weighs 450kg with 0.75 kp/h top speed at total cost of US$433.5M; <$500K Carnegie Mellon University 2kg micro-rover Iris, is launch ready; $37.6M Australia rover launching NET 2026; Custom fabricator Hookie of Germany / Russia designer Andrew Fabishevskiy will display Tardigrade concept Moon motorcycle at ADV: Overland in LA; Japan and USA industry including Toyota / General Motors in planning stages of pressurized and unpressurized crewed vehicles

Credits: Hookie, IAC, NASA, CMU, Toyota, Lockheed Martin