Team Blogs

The Astrobotic team has initiated testing of an experimental inertial measurement unit (IMU) loaned from Intel Labs. (IMUs measure a spacecraft's velocity, orientation and gravitational forces.) The tiny device provides six degree of freedom orientation data, utilizing a bluetooth wireless connection to a host computer. It contains three accelerometers, three gyroscopes, three magnetometers, and a microprocessor. The 9.8 gram IMU runs for six hours on a single charge.

For the Astrobotic rover to survive hibernation during the lunar night's cryogenic cold, the team must find commercial components that perform to extremes far beyond their published spec sheets. This week an Asus netbook entered the cryo-freezer to see if its Intel Atom processor would bounce back from the ordeal. (See photos below)

NASA’s top education official has noted an important upside to the agency’s revolutionary new budget. Because the new plan fosters entrepreneurial exploration projects, young professionals at these new space companies will take leadership roles far earlier in their careers than they would at old-line aerospace companies. Dr. Joyce Winterton, the agency’s assistant administrator for education, made the comment yesterday at a meeting of the education and public outreach advisory committee of the NASA Advisory Council attended by Astrobotic Technology.

(Of course, Rockets don't need “Physical Traction” and that allows them to work in Real Space. But they certainly need Financial Traction in “Cypher-Space”, = $Mx10^6 -- $Nx10^9)!