MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Astrobotic will deliver a lunar rover built by Venturi Astrolab to the south polar region of the moon as soon as the end of this year, the companies announced Feb. 5.
Astrolab’s FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform, or FLIP, rover will be the main payload on Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 lander, slated to land in the Nobile region near the south pole of the moon. The companies did not disclose terms of the deal.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic had been looking for payloads for Griffin-1 after NASA announced in July it would not use the lander for its Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission, but retain the Commercial Lunar Payload Services task order awarded to Astrobotic for delivering VIPER. NASA said it would fly a mass simulator in place of VIPER but allowed Astrobotic to seek out commercial payloads to take its place.
“We cast a wide net when NASA told us that VIPER was going to be canceled,” John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic, said in an interview, with inquiries from more than 60 organizations worldwide. “We took a deep look at all of those potential payloads and filtered by who can be ready first, who’s got the tech that can get a payload together that quickly, and then who’s got the interface that’s most closely aligned with what VIPER’s interface was.”
Those organizations included Hawthorne, California-based Astrolab, which announced in October plans to develop FLIP as a technology demonstrator for its larger FLEX, or Flexible Logistics and Exploration, rover. FLIP is similar in size and mass to VIPER, and Astrolab said in October it was seeking to launch FLIP as soon as the end of 2025.
“Astrolab fit the bill on many counts,” Thornton said. “It was a clear winner on that one, and then we made the deal and made it happen.”
“This partnership reflects a shared vision between our two companies to make lunar science and exploration and commercial activities more accessible and transformative,” said Jaret Matthews, chief executive of Astrolab, in an interview.
Both companies are now working to get their vehicles ready for a launch currently targeted for the end of this year. Thornton said Astrobotic was building elements of the lander’s propulsion system, with “good solutions” for the valve problem that crippled its first lunar lander, Peregrine, shortly after launch in January 2024. Other parts of the spacecraft and its software are also on schedule, he said. “By all accounts, we are on track for flight later this year.”
“We have parts arriving every day” for FLIP, said Matthews. “We’re on a mission to get it delivered to the Cape by October to be integrated into Griffin.”
The companies said that they needed to make few changes to either FLIP or Griffin to have that rover take the place of VIPER on the lander. “There were almost no changes to the lander for FLIP, and that’s what made it great,” Thornton said, with only minor adjustments to ramps and interfaces.
“We understood as well that it’s beneficial to both parties to have as few changes on the lander as possible. So, we really designed FLIP to interface seamlessly with the existing Griffin design,” Matthews said.
FLIP, weighing 500 kilograms, can carry 30 kilograms of payloads. Matthews said Astrolab is still taking inquiries about payload accommodations on the rover, with several already planned to study issues like dust mitigation.
Griffin-1 is “pretty much booked” with the deal with Astrolab, Thornton said. The lander will also carry CubeRover, a small rover developed by Astrobotic, as well as payloads from ESA, NASA and an undisclosed customer.
The partnership got an endorsement from Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) “Losing VIPER could’ve been a setback, but Astrobotic didn’t let up. They rolled up their sleeves, found a new way forward, and made sure this mission stays on track,” he said in a statement. “With Astrolab’s FLIP rover onboard, we’re showing the world that when challenges come our way, we double down.”