New Space Partnership: Venturi and Astrolab to Launch Lunar Rover
22nd Oct 2024Venturi Space and Venturi Astrolab, Inc. (Astrolab) announced this week that they are jointly developing a commercial lunar rover for future lunar missions. A prototype rover was demonstrated at the Venturi Space booth at Milan’s 75th International Astronautical Congress.
This collaboration responds to the increasing number of institutional, business and scientific organisations interested in delivering small payloads to the Moon in the US and European markets. The new rover, FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform), can operate in extreme environmental conditions on the Moon and Mars.
Built for the Moon’s Extremes
Astrolab, headquartered in California, is responsible for the lunar rover’s overall design and manufacturing and conducting comprehensive testing and operation from its headquarters. Specifically, the company developed the vehicle’s actuators, landing gear, launch and descent, avionics, solar panels, communications systems, and flight and ground software.
The rover has a mass of half a tonne and a payload capacity of 30kg. It has been designed to be compatible with the growing number of mid-range lunar landing modules currently entering the commercial space market.
In addition, the rover offers customers opportunities for technology demonstrations, commercial research, and the collection of valuable scientific data. Structurally, FLIP builds on three key technologies that Astrolab used to construct the FLEX rover, unveiled in 2022, for the upcoming Mission One commercial mission. All of these technologies are related to operating in the extreme conditions of the Moon’s South Pole.
Most notably, they include proprietary materials for cryogenic conditions, hyper-deformable wheels and batteries, and associated test systems and manufacturing processes. Venturi Space has developed these rover components at facilities in Monaco, Switzerland, France, and the US.
According to Jarett Matthews, founder and CEO of Astrolab, “We want to set the standard for lunar logistics. Just as there are standard sizes of shipping containers used in intermodal transport on Earth, we aim to do the same on the Moon.”
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