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Company type | Private company |
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Industry | |
Founded | 2014 |
Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Products |
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Website | spacebit |
Spacebit is a British company that is developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions. The company is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. [1] [2]
The first launch of one of its spacecraft, was originally scheduled for July 2021 on a Vulcan Centaur rocket within the Peregrine lunar lander, but was delayed to 8 January 2024. [3]
The company was founded in 2014 in London, UK. The private space startup was funded with the proceeds from the sale of MoneXy to Fidobank by Ukrainian-British tech entrepreneur Pavlo Tanasyuk. In seven years, Tanasyuk has raised about $10 million in angel investment from several private investors. As of 2024, company has offices in Ukraine, the UK, the US, Japan, and Luxembourg, employs 25 people. [4]
In September 2019, the company signed an agreement to deliver lunar rover Asagumo on upcoming mission in 2023, since the beginning was scheduled for 2021. [5]
The Asagumo rover weights 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lb) and uses four legs to essentially "crawl" over the Moon's surface to gather data and potentially explore lunar lava tubes. [6] [7]
In December 2019, the Asagumo lunar rover, which means "morning clouds" in Japanese, was presented in Japan. [8] Spacebit's Asagumo rover has legs that have to withstand not only lunar conditions, but also vibrations of the rocket during the launch. Initially it was designed to work with SpaceX Falcon9 and was tested accordingly. ULA Vulcan has different vibration profile and the company did not have time to requalify and change all the systems for the updated rocket. Also, due to the nature of the first flight Astrobotic had limited weight capacity on the first flight. As a result Spacebit decided to concentrate on material science during the first flight, the payload that the company are sending consist of different materials that include metals, different coating materials and paints. Testing of those materials during the flight and lunar conditions that would allow to progress to higher TLR (flight readiness level) for the robot and get ready for the next flight of Asagumo. The Spacebit payload also includes laser edged Union Jack and Ukrainian memorable plate that includes map of Ukraine and heart-shaped flag is launched in solidarity with Ukrainian people. [9]
In September 2021, the company in collaboration with the Ukrainian government had agreed plans to establish a space flight control center in Ukraine. [10] [11] [12]
On August 2023, Spacebit revealed the partnership with Ukrainian company "TitanEra" to send Ukrainian map and flag to the Moon. [13] According to the Hromadske, in the same month, the lunar mission was converted to british-ukrainian due to part of hardwares (cameras and radiation sensors) will be History manufactured by Ukrainian engineers and tested by the company together with the "KB Pivdenne" and the "Korolyov Meridian Research and Production Enterprise. [14]
The Canadian Space Agency is the national space agency of Canada, established in 1990 by the Canadian Space Agency Act.
Ukrainian Automobile Corporation JSC or UkrAVTO is a multinational company, distributor and service provider in Ukraine. UkrAVTO is the only car manufacturer in Ukraine with a full-scale production technology. The owner, Honorary President / Chairman of the Board is Tariel Vasadze.
A lunar lander or Moon lander is a spacecraft designed to land on the surface of the Moon. As of 2023, the Apollo Lunar Module is the only lunar lander to have ever been used in human spaceflight, completing six lunar landings from 1969 to 1972 during the United States' Apollo Program. Several robotic landers have reached the surface, and some have returned samples to Earth.
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Astrobotic Technology inc., commonly referred to as Astrobotic is an American private company that is developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions. It was founded in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon professor Red Whittaker and his associates with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize. The company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their first launch occurred on January 8, 2024, as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The launch carried the company's Peregrine lunar lander on board the first flight of the Vulcan Centaur rocket from Florida's Space Force Station LC-41. The mission was unable to reach the Moon for a soft or hard landing. On June 11, 2020, Astrobotic received a second contract for the CLPS program. NASA will pay Astrobotic US$199.5 million to take the VIPER rover to the Moon, targeting a landing in November 2024.
A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of the Moon. The Apollo program's Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews, Apollo 15, 16, and 17. Other rovers have been partially or fully autonomous robots, such as the Soviet Union's Lunokhods, Chinese Yutus, and the Indian Pragyan. Four countries have had operating rovers on the Moon: the Soviet Union, the United States, China and India.
The (Japanese) Lunar Exploration Program is a program of robotic and human missions to the Moon undertaken by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and its division, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). It is also one of the three major enterprises of the JAXA Space Exploration Center (JSPEC). The main goal of the program is "to elucidate the origin and evolution of the Moon and utilize the Moon in the future".
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Blue Moon is a family of lunar landers and their associated infrastructure, intended to carry humans and cargo to the Moon, currently under development by a consortium led by Blue Origin and including Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics. Two versions of Blue Moon are under development: a robotic lander planned to land on the Moon in 2024, and a larger human lander planned to land a crew of four astronauts on the lunar surface for the NASA Artemis V mission in 2029.
Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to hire companies to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon. Most landing sites are near the lunar south pole where they will scout for lunar resources, test in situ resource utilization (ISRU) concepts, and perform lunar science to support the Artemis lunar program. CLPS is intended to buy end-to-end payload services between Earth and the lunar surface using fixed-price contracts. The program was extended to add support for large payloads starting after 2025.
CubeRover is a class of planetary rover with a standardized modular format meant to accelerate the pace of space exploration. The idea is equivalent to that of the successful CubeSat format, with standardized off-the-shelf components and architecture to assemble small units that will be all compatible, modular, and inexpensive.
The Artemis program is a Moon exploration program that is led by the United States' NASA and was formally established in 2017 via Space Policy Directive 1. The Artemis program is intended to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. The program's stated long-term goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon to facilitate human missions to Mars.
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Peregrine Lunar Lander flight 01, commonly referred to as Peregrine Mission One, was an unsuccessful American lunar lander mission. The lander, dubbed Peregrine, was built by Astrobotic Technology and carried payloads for the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Peregrine Mission One launched on 8 January 2024, at 2:18 am EST, on the maiden flight of the Vulcan Centaur (Vulcan) rocket. The goal was to land the first U.S.-built lunar lander on the Moon since the crewed Apollo Lunar Module on Apollo 17 in 1972.
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