See The Dark Side Of The Moon With Motiv
Pink Floyd once sang, “I’ll see you on the dark side of the Moon.” But dark side or not, the Moon has been relatively dormant in terms of U.S. aerospace. In fact, the U.S. hasn’t set foot on the Moon since 1972. But that’s all about to change; with a growing number of lunar missions planned for 2022 and beyond, the U.S. is headed back to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits and inspiration.
The roadmap to getting back to the Moon has several missions, each with an important role to play. It first kicks off with NASA’s Artemis 1, which will complete a six-day orbit around the Moon while deploying several CubeSat payloads. Next up is the pathfinder mission, Cis-lunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE). In preparation for the Lunar Gateway platform, CAPSTONE will test navigation technologies for future teams headed to the Moon. 2022 will also see the first commercial lunar landings as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. These and other lunar missions are all working toward one big thing: landing the first woman and first person of color on the Moon sometime this decade.
Using innovative technologies to travel to and explore more of the Moon than ever before, NASA hopes to establish the first-long term presence on the Moon. But with such huge goals, NASA needs partners to help create their tech. Through collaboration with commercial and international partners, NASA plans to engineer new systems for their lunar missions. And with Motiv at work creating advanced robotics, they’ll be able to help NASA discover more and go farther.
Motiv’s COLDArm And Lunar Missions
As builders of robotic infrastructure for the future of space, Motiv has engineered the Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm (COLDArm). In a collaborative effort between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Motiv, the COLDArm is built specifically for cryogenic environments – down to -292°F (-180°C). This is perfect for lunar missions, as temperatures on the Moon can dip to -280°F (-173°C). Not only is the COLDArm capable of operating at extreme temperatures, but Motiv is designing it to do so without a heating source, letting the COLDArm conserve energy – a precious resource in space.
Motiv and JPL are designing the COLDArm to be adaptable to fit a wide variety of applications, with a goal for the robotic arm to hold a selection of instruments and tools. Currently, the COLDArm is being built to include a scoop at the end, which will be used for used evaluating regolith (rocks and dust) around the robot. Researchers will use the information gathered by the arm to learn the best ways to work with lunar regolith, as well as how future colonists could mine the lunar soil and use it to manufacture bases.
While working towards the goal of a lunar colony is no small feat, Motiv and their innovative tech are on the job. Share in Motiv’s achievements by downloading their dark side of the moon retro poster here and get eclipsed with Motiv Space Systems.
