three companies to help nasa advance solar array technology for moon

nasa has selected three businesses to similarly strengthen paintings on deployable sun array structures to be able to assist strength the corporation’s human and robotic exploration of the moon under artemis.

via artemis missions, nasa will return human beings to the moon and set up a long-term presence close to the lunar south pole. a reliable, sustainable electricity supply is needed to assist lunar habitats, rovers, or even construction structures for destiny robot and crewed missions. to assist offer this power, nasa is helping improvement of vertical solar arrays which can autonomously installation as much as 32 feet excessive and retract for relocation if vital.

“those prototypes will provide promising solutions for dependable strength resources at the moon, which might be key to the fulfillment of just about anything we do on the surface,” said niki werkheiser, director of era maturation in nasa’s space generation undertaking directorate (stmd) at nasa headquarters in washington. “this thrilling attempt plays a important function a good way to pretty literally help power our artemis exploration inside the uniquely hard environment of the moon’s south pole.”

the company will award a total of $19.4 million to three corporations to construct prototypes and perform environmental trying out, with the goal of deploying one of the structures near the moon’s south pole near the stop of this decade. the designs should continue to be solid on sloped terrain and be immune to abrasive lunar dust, all at the same time as minimizing both mass and stowed extent to aid within the gadget’s shipping to the lunar floor. the awards consist of:

astrobotic generation of pittsburgh, pennsylvania: $6.2 million
honeybee robotics of brooklyn, new york: $7 million
lockheed martin of littleton, colorado: $6.2 million
current space-rated sun array structures are designed to be used in microgravity or for horizontal surface deployment. the vertical orientation and peak of those new designs will help prevent lack of power on the lunar poles in which the solar does now not rise very a ways above the horizon. when the sun is low on the horizon, the moon’s terrain can block a number of its mild, maintaining it from attaining solar arrays which can be low to the ground. with the aid of putting the solar arrays on tall masts, these designs allow for uninterrupted light and consequently produce more energy.

“we are very excited with a view to choose those 3 groups as all of them convey very specific technological solutions in addition to specific visions for a way industrial space can guide a sustained presence at the moon,” stated chuck taylor, vertical sun array generation (vsat) assignment supervisor at nasa’s langley studies middle in hampton, virginia.

the contracts are part of the organization’s vsat mission, which targets to help nasa’s long-time period lunar surface operations. in 2021, nasa selected 5 agencies to create initial designs for vertical solar array technology. vsat is led via stmd’s sport changing improvement application and langley in collaboration with nasa’s glenn research middle in cleveland.