Astrobotic Technology - Moon Missions

Moon Missions

In April 2011, Astrobotic contracted with SpaceX for a Falcon 9 launch on a lunar mission for as early as December 2013. The mission is intended to "deliver a lander, small rover and up to about 240 pounds (110 kg) of payload to the surface of the Moon." A payload user's guide for researchers on preparation of their instruments was released in early March 2011.

In April 2011, Astrobotic stated that follow-on moon missions were tentatively planned for 2015 and 2016. Both to be flown on Falcon 9 launch vehicles, with the same total mission payload as the first mission: 210 kilograms (460 lb), or 110 kilograms (240 lb) customer payload if the 100 kilograms (220 lb) rover is included on the mission. The 2015 mission was named Polar Excavator (now Icebreaker), would target the lunar north pole, and was nominally planned for July 2015 (now October 2015). This expedition's rover was to be Polaris. The 2016 mission, as of April 2011, was to be customer driven, and land at a destination that was to be selected by the customer.

By August 2011, per version 2.4 of the User's Guide, there had been two small changes to the mission manifest with the first mission now aimed for either an Apollo site or a skylight entrance to a lava tube, and the launch date has been changed to a range: December 2013 to April 2014.

By October 2011, Astrobotic had delayed the lunar mission launch date to "late 2014 or early 2015", indicating that they were still under contract to SpaceX for a Falcon 9 mission.

As of May 2012, the Astrobotic mission on the SpaceX Falcon 9 is now scheduled for October 2015. In October 2015, the Polaris rover will carry out the same or similar tasks to NASA's RESOLVE. (Polaris was designed to be capable of carrying the RESOLVE payload.) A constructed Polaris rover was unveiled in October 2012