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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astrobotic Technology | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobotic_Technology | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T12:56:54.742029+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Canceled missions === In April 2011, Astrobotic contracted with SpaceX for a Falcon 9 launch of a lunar north pole mission for as early as December 2013. The mission was intended to launch the Griffin lander and deliver "a small rover and up to about 110 kg (240 lb) of payload to the surface of the Moon". The launch date slipped to 2015, and it was first named Polar Excavator, and then Icebreaker, that would target the lunar north pole. This expedition's rover was to be Polaris. A model of the Polaris rover was unveiled in October 2012, and the company indicated that they were still under contract to SpaceX for a Falcon 9 mission. The launch date further slipped to 2016, and Astrobotic contracted with two other GLXP teams including Team Hakuto and Team AngelicvM to share the launch expenses. The agreement was to launch the rovers of all teams on a single SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 which would then use the Astrobotic Griffin lander. After landing on the lunar surface, all teams would have competed against each other to achieve the specific GLXP objectives and earn the various prizes. The Griffin lander was never built, and Icebreaker mission was not launched.
MoonRanger is a 13 kg (29 lb) rover being developed to carry payloads on the Moon for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). The US$5.6 million contract was awarded to Astrobotic and its partner Carnegie Mellon University on July 1, 2019. MoonRanger was to be launched aboard Masten Mission One, the first XL-1 lunar lander. The rover was to carry science payloads yet to be determined and developed by other providers, that will focus on scouting and creating 3D maps of a polar region for signs of water ice or lunar pits for entrances to Moon caves. The rover would operate mostly autonomously for up to one week. Masten Mission One was cancelled after Masten Space Systems went bankrupt in 2022. Thus MoonRanger lost its flight to the Moon. On July 29, 2025 NASA announced that MoonRanger would be delivered to the lunar surface by a Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lander.
=== Peregrine Mission One ===
Peregrine Mission One, or the Peregrine Lunar Lander, was a lunar lander built by Astrobotic Technology, that was selected through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). It was launched on January 8, 2024 by United Launch Alliance (ULA) aboard a Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle. The lander carried multiple payloads, with total payload mass capacity of 90 kg. Peregrine carried a maximum payload mass of 90 kg (200 lb) during Mission One, and it was planned to land on Gruithuisen Gamma. The payload mass for the planned second mission (Mission Two) is capped at 175 kg (386 lb), and the Mission Three and later missions would carry the full payload capacity of 265 kg (584 lb). The Peregrine mission was unable to reach the Moon for a soft or hard landing. The mission was never able to leave its original (highly elliptical) Earth orbit and it ended with a controlled reentry into the Earth's atmosphere on January 18, 2024.
=== Griffin Mission One ===
The Griffin lander is targeted to land in a region of interest in the Moon's south polar region. The spacecraft is expected to operate for 100 days after its landing. NASA's VIPER rover was to be the main payload (450 kg) until VIPER was canceled in 2024. VIPER was to investigate permanently shadowed regions of craters located in the Moon's south pole, specifically for potential deposits of water ice that could be used as resources for future crewed missions. Other commercial payloads are on board the Griffin lander, including the Lunar Codex's Polaris archive of contemporary culture as one of the commercial sub-payloads of Astrobotics' MoonBox initiative.
=== Griffin Mission Two === Griffin Mission Two is a planned mission to be launched in Q4 2026.
== CubeRover ==
CubeRover is a class of planetary rovers with a standardized format meant to accelerate the pace of space exploration. The idea is equivalent to that of the successful CubeSat format, with a standardized architecture to assemble new units that will be all compatible, modular, and inexpensive. The rover class concept is being developed by Astrobotic Technology in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, and it is partly funded by NASA awards. The principal investigator of the program is Andrew Horchler. The first derivative of a CubeRover, a spinoff rover called Iris, developed by CMU students, was planned to be deployed on the Moon on board Astrobotic's Peregrine lander, but was lost with Peregrine's reentry and never deployed. CubeRover-1 will be carried to the Moon on Griffin Mission One, launching no earlier than December 2025.
== See also ==
Exploration of Mars Exploration of the Moon Lunar rover Mars rover
== References ==
== External links == Official website