Astrobotic announced Tuesday it’s developing specialized wheels for a mobile lunar outpost, a critical component of the NASA-led Artemis moon exploration program.
The Pittsburgh-based aerospace and robotics company has been hired by Thales Alenia Space to build a wheel system that can withstand the moon’s extreme temperatures, radiation, dust and rugged terrain for at least a decade.
The all-metal wheels will use tensioned cables to connect the hub to the rim, making them lightweight without sacrificing strength, Astrobotic said.
Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between French and Italian aerospace companies. It’s been tasked by the Italian Space Agency with designing a combined lab and living quarters on wheels.
This so-called Multi-Purpose Habitation module is expected to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in 2033, providing a pressurized refuge for astronauts on the moon.
The wider Artemis program involves a series of increasingly complex missions to the moon. NASA is eyeing an April launch for its Artemis II rocket, which will fly humans around the moon and back.
Artemis III is scheduled to take flight in 2027 as a test run for Artemis IV, a 2028 mission to put astronauts on the moon for the first time since 1972.
Astrobotic plans to send its Griffin lander to the moon in July via a SpaceX rocket.
The lander will carry Astrobotic’s own CubeRover, a small vehicle that can make deliveries across the moon — for a price. Sending a payload through CubeRover will cost $4.5 million per kilogram.
In January 2024, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander blasted off toward the moon but sustained a critical fuel leak. After 10 troubled days in space, the vessel burned up in Earth’s atmosphere.
