Latest news with #rover
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Channel 11 Exclusive: Carnegie Mellon students get second chance to get their work on the moon
The Carnegie Mellon students who operated a rover in space are getting another chance at history. They're hoping this second time is the charm to get their work on the moon for decades to come. When Pittsburgh-based Astrobotics launched its Peregrine Lunar Lander in January 2024, a rover called Iris was on board. Carnegie Mellon students spent 10 years creating it by using phone parts and used materials. While Peregrine was in space, Astrobotics turned on the rover and let the students operate while in space. But the excitement was short-lived. Peregrine had fuel issues, and it was intentionally crashed into the Pacific Ocean, just 10 days into the mission, short of the moon. It was understandably a disappointment for the CMU students, but not entirely. 'We got to go to space. We proved students can command and build a rover,' said Iris science lead and CMU student Zach Muraskin. PREVIOUS COVERAGE >>> CMU students who turned on rover during Astrobotic mission share their story And now they're getting a second chance to reach the moon. This time it's in a different way and size. The team got space aboard Astrobotics' Griffin Lander, which is set to launch to the south pole of the moon later this year. 'We got money together to buy room for a stack of plaques, commemorating Iris and all the hard work that went into it,' said Iris Chief Engineer Connor Colombo. 'We also have images that tell our story, and additionally, we have a small cutout of the wheel of Iris in the shape of Iris.' Channel 11 was there as the team prepared the payload — the exact item going on the lander. All the data is embedded in a little package, about the size of a quarter. 'We also had some other chips that we put in there, which have photographs and messages from the team and from alumni,' Muraskin said. They also included the messages they sent to Iris while it was in space. Colombo's message was the second-to-last one sent, but possibly the most impactful. 'The message I sent was a proposal to my long-time fiancée asking her, 'Will you marry me?'' Colombo said, smiling. It was another success. The two got married this summer. Their proposal, or the data from it, will now outlive them on the moon. RELATED COVERAGE >>> Astrobotic discusses 'wild adventure' after Peregrine returns to earth Right now, Colombo, who now works at Astrobotics, said they're still learning from Iris and the mission. 'The mission kind of actually didn't conclude last January,' Colombo said. 'It concluded in many ways last October when we got to present a series of papers at the International Astronaut Conference containing all of the lessons we've learned both in managing a program and getting something to space.' >>> Pittsburgh-built lunar lander may not make it to the moon << >> 'No chance': Pittsburgh built lunar lander will touch down on moon after fuel leak, company says 'Everyone had different reasons for doing Iris, but a lot of it was the idea to create a legacy, either a legacy at CMU, a legacy in space, or your own legacy,' Colombo said. 'For me personally, in a very self-serving way, this helps create a legacy that lasts on the moon, something that outlasts us.' Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
TechCrunch
05-06-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Europe will have to be more Tenacious to land its first rover on the Moon
Europe likely just suffered a setback in its attempt to reach another milestone in the commercial race to use lunar resources. Tenacious, which was set to become the first European-made rover to land on the Moon, was aboard a lander that lost contact during its landing attempt — a strong sign that something went wrong. If confirmed, this would be the second failed mission of the HAKUTO-R commercial lunar exploration program, two years after a previous crash that had already shattered hopes. This loss will be particularly felt in Japan; ispace, the company behind HAKUTO-R and the currently missing Resilience lander that carried Tenacious, is a publicly listed Japanese company. But it is also a blow to Europe: The European Space Agency (ESA) supported the mission; and the rover was designed, assembled, tested, and manufactured by ispace-EUROPE out of Luxembourg. Luxembourg isn't just ispace-EUROPE's base — it's the reason the entity was created in 2017. As part of its initiative, the tiny country became the second in the world after the U.S. to adopt a law giving companies the right to own resources extracted from space. Had Tenacious' Luxembourg-based operators managed to drive it around on the Moon, the rover would have captured video and gathered data. One of its missions would have been to collect lunar soil, called regolith, as part of a contract with NASA, to which it was supposed to transfer ownership of the samples. 'I think this will be very helpful to nail down what it means to commercialize space resources and how to do this on a larger scale, both in terms of volume and of global participation and coordination,' ispace-EUROPE CEO Julien Lamamy told TechCrunch on the eve of the landing attempt. Winning such a contract from NASA was also a first for a European company. But it took some coaxing to get Lammy to brag about the agile team of 50 people from 30 nationalities that made this unique little rover. Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Despite a resume that includes time at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT, Lamamy is not one to boast. In our conversation, he admitted he had to 'channel his inner American' to explain his team's achievements. But that's also because ispace is willfully collaborative. For instance, the lightweight scoop that was meant to collect regolith for NASA was made by Epiroc, a mining equipment provider out of Sweden. 'We could have done this ourselves. Instead, we saw the opportunity to engage a terrestrial industry to think about space,' Lamamy said. 'The more people participate, the better.' More people are participating in Luxembourg's space ecosystem, too. The Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) was established in 2018, and the country actively supports the sector, which has gone from niche to mainstream since the Space Resources Law was adopted. 'Even better than that, there are many companies now established downstream of ispace in the value chain,' Lamamy said. He cited the example of Magna Petra, a startup partnering with ispace on mining Helium-3, a rarefied resource, from the lunar surface. 'Our ambition is to develop a space sector that is highly integrated with our industries on earth and opens up new market opportunities, both in space and on Earth,' Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Lex Delles, said in a comment when ispace-EUROPE announced the completion of its rover. That ambition is being fueled by money. Tenacious was developed with co-funding from the LSA through an ESA contract with the Luxembourg National Space Program, LuxIMPULSE. Tax incentives or direct aids are available both for startups and for multinational companies, according to research from Deloitte on Luxembourg's space industry. An unusual payload Image Credits:ispace Tenacious was designed to be both small and light, weighing about five kilograms — half the weight of NASA's Sojourner Mars rover. By selecting mass-efficient and power-efficient components, Lamamy explained, his team was able to build a very small system that is cheaper to manufacture and to send to the Moon. This made its payload inherently limited, but designed to reach up to one kilogram. As part of the Resilience mission, Tenacious' payload included the scoop required for the NASA mission, and perhaps unexpectedly, a miniature red house. Known as The Moonhouse, this small sculpture of a Swedish cottage was supposed to symbolically become the first house on the Moon, a project that artist Mikael Genberg has been pursuing since 1999. 'It's not about science or politics, it's about reminding us of what we all share — our humanity, our imagination, and our longing for home. A red house gazing back at 'The Pale Blue Dot', as Carl Sagan once described our fragile planet,' The Moonhouse's site stated. Lamamy's team had prepared to be in charge of successfully dropping and photographing The Moonhouse in a good spot, and took the role seriously. As part of the rover testing it conducted on Earth, both on its testing site in Luxembourg and in several European locations including Spain's Canary Islands, the operators had rehearsed the procedure several times. Although poetic, this may have seemed less of a priority than NASA, but not to Lamamy. 'That's an interesting paradigm shift; yes, we're going to the Moon to improve our knowledge of the Moon from a scientific and commercial perspective, but we are also there to open access to artists, entrepreneurs, educators, and that's also a very exciting element to the mission.' Unfortunately, this will now likely have to wait.
Washington Post
05-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Private Japanese lunar lander heads toward a touchdown in the moon's far north
A private lunar lander from Japan is closing in on the moon , aiming for a touchdown in the unexplored far north with a mini rover. The moon landing attempt by Tokyo-based company ispace on Friday Japan time is the latest entry in the rapidly expanding commercial lunar rush.
