Nasa's second thoughts about Viper opened an opportunity for someone else to book that ride to the moon. The fact that the load had been canceled did not mean that Astrobotic's journey was eliminated – it remains planned for later this year. And on Wednesday a small startup announced with the name Venturi Astrolab Inc. That it had claimed that opportunity to accelerate his own Lunar Rover plans.
“We are pleased to get real wheels in the dirt this year and to see how all our technology is performing,” said Jaret Matthews, the Chief Executive of Astrolab, in an interview. (Despite the similar names, the two companies are not related.)
Many people inside and outside NASA were perplexed by the cancellation of Viper, because the Rover, although over the budget and behind schedule, was completed. It only needed one test round before it would be ready for the launch. NASA officials said that the completed Rover would be dismantled instead.
Moreover, they said that NASA would still pay $ 323 million to Astrobotic. Canceling the mission would therefore save a relatively meager amount – $ 84 million – after it had spent around $ 800 million.
Despite his reimbursement, Astrobotic would carry out the mission as planned, but the Lander Spacecraft, known as Griffin, would wear a non -functional dummy weight instead of Viper.
NASA officials said that Astrobotic to successfully carry out the landing in itself was a valuable exercise, and that the company was free to sell the payload space at Griffin to another customer if possible, to replace the dummy weight.
“We had more than 60 organizations from all over the world on our door,” said John Thornton, Chief Executive of Astrobotic.
Astrolab, he said, was the best match. “They can move quickly,” said Mr. Thornton. “They had a load that already matched the interfaces for the lander.”
The Rover that Astrolab will fly on this mission is also about the same size as Viper. Matthews refused to say how much astrolab astrobotic paid.
Astrolab is developing a robber the size of a Jeep Wrangler who could drive autonomously freight or people over the surface of the moon. The company calls it flex, shortly for flexible logistics and reconnaissance rover.
Flex is far too big and heavy to fit on the Lander of Astrobotic. Astrolab has already booked space for Flex on a future flight of the spaceship, the Gargantuan spacecraft that is currently developing by SpaceX, the Rocket Company founded by Elon Musk.
But before Flex is sent to the Moon, Astrolab wants a smaller Rover of 1,000 pound called Flip-Kort for Flex Lunar Innovation Platform steering to test technologies such as batteries, engines, energy systems and communication. A certain goal is to study how problems are minimized caused by particles of moon fabric that are angular and sharp.
The smaller Flip is the one who will take up the Griffin of Astrobotic de Moon.
Mr Matthews said that Flip would also wear a few commercial loads that would be announced later.
Despite the failure of Astrobotic last year, Mr. Matthews said he had faith in Astrobotic. “From our perspective, it is actually a way to reduce the risk of our next missions,” he said. “If we didn't have complete faith in Astrobotic, we wouldn't do this.”
Mr Thornton said that the past year had been one of introspection for the company. “It is just like the old saying:” What you don't kill makes you stronger, “he said.” I think it was real in this case. “
Despite the efforts of NASA to kill Viper, the Rover is not yet dead or dismantled. NASA asked and received proposals to continue the mission without extra investments from NASA.
The agency expects to make a decision this summer. But with the new Trump administration that indicates more interest in Mars than the moon, everything can change quickly.
Mr Thornton said that Astrobotic was not yet worried about that possibility. “There is certainly a lot of conversation in DC,” he said. “But at the moment we are focused on what NASA has attracted us to do, and that is to deliver Griffin to the surface of the moon.”
Matthews said that if Nasa did indeed make a sharp turn to Mars, Astrolab could also run.
“We have always considered ourselves a Multi-Planet company,” he said, “and we would be enthusiastic to go to Mars too.”
