Posted on 01/02/2021 11:26:55 AM PST by BenLurkin
The official name is the Asagumo rover, and it’s built using a single-unit CubeSat frame typically used for small satellites. The rover tips the scales at only 1.3 kilograms and is solar-powered.
It’s design makes it very inexpensive. The mission will be launched on the first ULA Vulcan mission in Q3 2021. It’s hitching a ride to the lunar surface aboard the Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander spacecraft. The rover will move 10-meters from the lander and beam full HD video and 3D lidar data back to Earth from its onboard sensors in its initial demonstration mission.
Since the rover walks on four legs rather than rolling on wheels, it can go on rugged terrain and explore locations on the surface of the moon wheeled rovers are unable to reach. The spider-like design of the rover makes it much more capable of climbing than wheeled rovers.
(Excerpt) Read more at slashgear.com ...
Shelob...
I truly despise spiders, snakes, and sharks.
That looks like the things that killed you in that Tom Selleck scifi flick...
I remember that. They were small, only like 4 inches high. But they were armed with hyperdermic needles. Nasty little critters.
Yeah. :)
A really smart design would have been on wheels with the spider legs secondary
Didn’t David Bowie warn us that the spiders were from Mars?
Well he did warn also we only had five years, and we’re still here.
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