Dig This! Moon Excavation Robot Contracts Announced

Thanks to NASA probes of the Moon, it appears that water content in lunar polar soil is 10 to 30 times richer than previously thought. Moreover, it seems easier-to-access in places than the floors of ultra-deep craters.

Question: How best to dig for and into this valuable resource?

NASA today selected Astrobotic Technology and Carnegie Mellon University for two contracts to study Moon excavation robots and methods to simulate the one-sixth lunar gravity on Earth.

Lightweight excavation robots are critical in recovering the water and hydrocarbon deposits at the Moon's poles. Doing so will enable explorers to "live off the land" rather than hauling all their supplies from Earth at mega dollars.

"We intend our robots to be prospectors for water and hydrocarbon resources, and then to demonstrate how they can be turned into rocket propellant and life support supplies," noted William "Red" Whittaker, founder of Astrobotic Technology. He's also a research professor at the university's Robotics Institute.

According to Whittaker, making propellant at the Moon will cut in half the cost of lunar exploration and pull closer the date when we can send human explorers to more distant Mars.

Researchers see lunar excavation as the key to remove a top layer of dry soil covering ices, likely deposited over time by comet and asteroid impacts.

The new NASA contracts also call for lunar gravity simulation work.

That study will examine the best ways to mimic the effects of the one-sixth lunar gravity via various active and passive gravity-offload mechanisms. Additionally, the work will assess ways the apparatus can be scaleable and transportable for field tests in challenging terrain.

NASA selected the excavation robot proposal under its Small Business Innovation Research program and lunar-gravity simulation proposal under its Small Business Technology Transfer program designed to move university research into the commercial sphere.
Here's the info on the work packages:

The two Phase One awards total $199,850 and may lead to Phase Two awards in six months totaling $1.2 million.

Astrobotic Technology Inc. is a Carnegie Mellon spin-off that will fund a series of robotic Moon missions, eying a $20 million Google prize purse and visiting Apollo 11 on a projected "Tranquility Trek" expedition in late 2011.

Their Trek robot will be, in a sense, a rolling TV studio and Internet node, sending back high-definition video of its adventures. Later missions will prospect for water ice in deep polar craters and seek out volcanic caves as low-cost shelters for both robots and astronauts.

Astrobotic Technology is a company that has secured lunar contracts from NASA and two commercial firms. Prototype rovers are now being field-tested at Carnegie Mellon University. The company is eager to license lunar data, deliver payloads and perform on-the-surface services for space agencies, aerospace contractors, researchers, corporate marketers and the media.

Check out this web site for more information: www.astrobotictech.com

By LD/CSE