diumenge, 3 d’octubre del 2010

Magazine

Astrobotic Technology Reveals Robot Design To Survive Moon's Extreme Heat.

Exactly 40 years ago, a human-made artifact touched down on the moon. Today, a space technology company unveiled the machine they hope will replicate the feat.

Or at least the machine's latest version. Astrobotic Technology, in Pittsburgh, is developing a lunar robot, which they hope to put on the moon sometime in 2011.

Spectrum wrote about Astrobotic's efforts, led by famed Carnegie Mellon roboticist William "Red" Whittaker, in our Mars special issue. The article described how Red and his team plan to win the US $20 million Google Lunar X Prize by being the first to land a robot on the moon and beam back photos and video.

Their robot is going through several design iterations, and the version revealed today addresses a hot topic, so to speak: the robot's ability to survive the scorching temperatures of the moon's equator -- over 130 degrees Celsius at local noon.