Astrobotic (CubeRover)

Our robotic rovers are the first ever of their kind.

Created: 2019-01-22

Updated: 2023-09-21

Company - Astrobotic (CubeRover)

Founded
Country: 2017; USA

Funding: $2M+

Website: https://www.astrobotic.com/

Social

Product/Service - CubeRover, MoonRanger

Classification: Surface Spacecraft

Category: Commercial Rover

Fields: Lunar Rover
Moon

Status: Development

First launch: 2025

CubeRover, an ultralight, rechargeable planetary rover developed by Astrobotic, has been awarded a $2 million NASA Tipping Point contract in Nov 2019. The rover, roughly the size of a shoebox and weighing in at under five pounds, can carry its own payloads or team up with other CubeRovers as “scouts” for larger rovers and landers.

The Tipping Point award will provide the final push to bring the CubeRover product line to market. The first CubeRover will fly to the Moon aboard the Peregrine lunar lander on Astrobotic’s flagship mission in 2021, set to be the first by an American-built lander since Apollo.

CubeRover and Luxembourg announced in September 2018 the agreement for the development of next-generation planetary rovers in Luxembourg. The new headquarters in Luxembourg will be a hub for planetary rover design, manufacture, and assembly, as well as a one-stop shop for customers around the world to begin their planetary rover exploration programs.

Astrobotic announced today that MoonRanger, an autonomous rover that will explore the lunar South Pole in 2022, passed NASA’s Key Decision Point (KDP) review and is in the final stage of the payload preparation phase, culminating in flight hardware fabrication.

CubeRover, a spinoff of commercial lunar lander company Astrobotic, will set up operations in Luxembourg to develop rovers weighing as little as two kilograms for lunar exploration. Astrobotic has been working on the project internally, with some support from NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program. Luxembourg has provided financing to companies in the past to lure them to establish a presence in the country. Through its SpaceResources.lu initiative, the government initially focused on companies involved with asteroid mining and related activities, but has in the last year expanded that to include a broader range of space startups.

Status Comment / Notes

Separate CubeRover website does not exists anymore. Office in Luxembourg seems to not have happened.

Link

Sources

Most sources should be linked in the texts and headings as revealed by mouse-over, but here are they listed for visibility.

[1] https://www.astrobotic.com/

[2] https://www.astrobotic.com/technology

[3] https://www.astrobotic.com/2018/9/27/cuberover-to-develop-next-generation-planetary-rovers-in-luxembourg

[4] https://spacenews.com/three-american-space-startups-to-establish-offices-in-luxembourg/

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