NASA reconstruction about VIPER has a chance for someone else to reserve the boarding. Just because the cargo was canceled did not mean that the ASTROBOTIC trip was turned off. It is scheduled for the second half of this year. On Wednesday, a small emerging company named Venturi Astrolab Inc. announced that it had asserted the opportunity to accelerate its own Lunar Rover plan.
Jaret Matthews, the highest executive officer of Astrab, said in an interview, “I'm excited to see how all the technologies work this year in dirt.” Masu. (Despite the similar name, the two companies are irrelevant.)
Many people inside and outside of NASA were confused by the cancellation of the viper. Because the rover was completed while the budget was exceeding the scales. Before the startup was ready, one more test was required. NASA officials said that the completed rover would be disassembled instead.
In addition, they said NASA still paid $ 323 million to Astrobotic. Therefore, if you cancel the mission, you can save NASA to a relatively small amount ($ 84 million) after NASA spent about $ 800 million.
At that rate, Astrobotic performs missions as planned, but Lander Spacecraft, known as Griffin, carries a dummy weight that does not work instead of Viper.
NASA officials have said that as Astrobotic succeeded in the success of the land, it was a valuable exercise, and the company could freely sell Griffin's payload space to other customers.
“More than 60 organizations around the world knocked the door,” said John Thornton, the highest executive of Astrobotic.
Astrab said he was the best match. “They can move fast,” said Soonton. “They already had a payload that matched the landing ship interface.”
The rover that Astrolab flies in this mission is almost the same size as Viper. Matthews has refused to say how much Astrab pays Tenshin.
Astrab is developing a lover of a gehnrangler size that can drive people autonomously across the cargo and the surface of the moon. The company stands for flexible logistics and exploration rovers and is called Flex.
Flex is too big and too heavy to fit on a landing ship of Astrobotic. Astrolab has already reserved Flex spaces on the future flight of Starship, a future spacecraft, which is currently being developed by the Rocket Company established by Elon Musk.
However, before sending Flex to the moon, Astrolab is an abbreviation of Flex Lunar Innovation Platform to test technologies such as Batteryes, Motors, Power Systems, and Communications. A specific goal is to study how to minimize the problem caused by the sharp moon dust particles at an angle.
The small flip is taken by Astrobotic Griffin to the moon.
Matthews also said that FLIP will also carry some commercial payloads later.
Last year, despite the failure of Astrobotic, Matthews said he was confident in Astrobotic. “From our point of view, it's actually a way to reduce the risk of subsequent missions,” he said. “If you don't have a complete confidence in Astrobotic, you'll not do this.”
Souton said last year it was one of the nations for the company. “It's like an old proverb,” If you don't kill you, you'll strengthen you, “he said. “In this case, I think that's really the case.”
Despite NASA's efforts to kill Viper, Rover has not yet died and has not been dismantled yet. NASA received a proposal to continue the mission without an additional investment from NASA.
The agency expects to make a decision this summer. However, as the new Trump administration is more interested in Mars than the moon, everything can change quickly.
Soonton said that Astrobotic was not worried about the possibility yet. “There are certainly many conversations in DC,” he said. “But now we are focusing on what NASA has signed with us, which is to deliver Griffin to the moon.”
Matthews stated that if NASA actually turned suddenly toward Mars, astrab could be pivot.
“We have always considered ourselves as a multi -planet business,” he said. “And you will be excited to go to Mars.”
