New Delhi: All the major spacefaring nations are headed to the south pole of the Moon, because of the permanently shadowed craters in the surrounding highlands, that may contain water ice. The presence of this resource allows for sustained human presence on the lunar surface. The space agencies are collaborating closely for an international push with many public and private players. Pooling resources, and designing lunar architectures with interoperable elements allows all the active lunar exploring organisations to keep costs low by pooling resources. ISRO is developing the infrastructure necessary in lunar orbit to support its future missions, including a constellation of six navigation and communications relay satellites, along the lines of ESA’s Moonlight constellation.
A rendering of the LunaGrid demonstration. (Image Credit: Astrobotic).
Responding to a question on sustainable operations on the lunar surface at IAC 24, Dan Hendrickson, vice president of business development at Astrobotic said, “I liked the mention of Moonlight, because it speaks to a sense of sustainability where people are specialising. We are really excited about providing power through LunaGrid. We feel like it is an opportunity then for other space agencies, startup companies to make use of power that’s already there, and not have to bring a power solution with them every time for a hab, an LTV or a science package. And so, if we have specialisation, that’s one of the hallmarks that we have got the beginnings of something that’s truly sustainable because it is going to bring down costs, and it is also going to invite other players to the table.”
Astrobotic to demonstrate LunaGrid tech in 2026 mission
Astrobotic is designing LunaGrid to deliver energy to any kind of hardware operational assets on the lunar surface, including landers, rovers and lunar terrain vehicles (LTVs), science payloads and essentially anyone who is willing to purchase the power by the Watt. The power is generated from vertical solar panels. The really cool aspect about LunaGrid is that it has the capacity to deliver power wirelessly. Astrobotic intends to demonstrate the LunaGrid technology with a rover that will roll out a one kilometre long power cable across the lunar surface, with a mission in 2026.
