NASA’s snake abandoned the moon riding. It took Rover this young.
NASA’s second ideas about Viper opened an opportunity for another person to book this ride to the moon. Just because its shipment has been canceled, it does not mean that the Astrobooth trip was suspended – it is still scheduled to be held later this year. On Wednesday, a small startup named Venturi Astrolab Inc. It has claimed this opportunity to accelerate its lunar plans.
“We are excited to get actual wheels in dirt this year and know how all our technologies work,” said Jarrett Matthews, CEO of Astrolab, in an interview. (Despite similar names, the two companies have nothing to do with.)
Many people inside and outside NASA were confused about the cancellation of Viper, because Rover, while the budget was completed and the timeline was completed. He only needed another round of the test before it was ready to launch. Alternatively, NASA officials said Rover will be dismantled.
In addition, they said that NASA is still paying $ 323 million to Astrobooth. Consequently, canceling the mission would provide NASA a relatively glowing amount – $ 84 million – after spent about 800 million dollars.
For its drawings, the important Astrobotic will take place as planned, but the Lander spacecraft, known as Griffin, will carry a fake, non -functional weight instead of Viper.
NASA officials said that for the performance of Astrobooth, the decline in itself was in itself, in itself a valuable exercise, and that the company was free to sell the beneficial load space on Griffin to another customer if he could replace the imaginary weight.
“We had more than 60 organizations from all over the world touched on our door,” said John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic.
He said that Astrollab was the best match. “They can move quickly,” said Mr. Thornton. “They had a load tonnage that already corresponds to the facades with Lander.”
Rover that Astrolab will fly in this task is also the same size of the Iber. Mr. Matthews refused to determine the amount of Astrolab that pays astronomer.
Astrolab is developing ROOR in the size of the Jeep Wrangler that can drive goods or people across the moon independently. The company calls it flexible, short to Flexible logistics and Rover exploration services.
Flex is very large and heavy to suit it on the Astrobooth ground. Astrolab has already booked a Flex space on a future flight of the spacecraft, which is the huge spacecraft currently under development by Spacex, the missile company founded by Elon Musk.
But before sending Flex to the Moon, Astrolab wants to send a smaller Rover, 1000 pounds called FLIP-short for the flexible lunar innovation platform-for testing technologies such as batteries, engines, energy and communications systems. A specific goal is to study how to reduce the problems caused by lunar dust particles, which are angular and sharp.
The smaller face is what Griffin will take from Astrobooth to the moon.
Mr. Matthews said that Flip will also carry a commercial load that will be announced later.
Despite the failure of Astrobooth last year, Mr. Matthews said it was confidence in astronomy. “From our point of view, it is actually a way to reduce the risk of our subsequent tasks,” he said. “If we do not have complete confidence in the astronomer, we will not do it.”
And Mr. Thornton said last year he was one of the company’s meditation. “It is like the old saying,” All that does not kill you makes you stronger. “I think in this case, I really did it.”
Despite NASA’s efforts to kill Viber, Rover has not died and has not yet disintegrated. NASA has requested proposals and received the task without additional investments from NASA.
Agency A decision is expected this summer. But as the new Trump administration indicates more attention to Mars than the moon, everything can change soon.
Mr. Thornton said that Astrobooth is not worried about this possibility. “There is definitely a lot of conversation in the capital,” he said. “But we are now focusing on what NASA has contracted to do, and this is the delivery of Griffin to the moon.”
Mr. Matthews said that if NASA is already taken a sharp turn towards Mars, Astrolab can also burn.
He said: “We have always considered ourselves a multi -step business, and we will be excited to go to Mars as well.”