The UK is launching its first lunar rover through the so-called company Spacebit, announced details of his lunar mission in mid-2021. The lunar rover is a spider robot that scours across the lunar surface to take photos, videos, and robot selfies built.
Spacebit had a contract with the American company Astrobotic to suspend a mission to the peregrine falcon. After Google Lunar XPRIZE shut down, this private company is now trying to reach the Moon and do lunar searches.
Instead of a wheeled rover used by other countries, Spacebit plans to use a spider robot that measures about 10 centimeters across and weighs one kilogram. The official name is Asagumo rover which is built using a single-unit CubeSat framework that is commonly used in small satellites.
Spacebit CEO and founder Pavlo Tanasuyuk said the rover’s legs are designed to be ideal for exploring lava pipes, which are empty tunnels that extend out beneath the lunar surface.
Asagumo: Robot the spider on the moon
According to Spacebit CEO Tanasuyuk, he once listened to David Bowie The rise and fall of ziggy stardust and the spiders from Mars and surprise you one day building ropes that have legs rather than wheels. It wasn’t until he met a friend at Japan Aerospace Group (JAXA) and told him about his idea that he decided to build a spider robot.
His friend at JAXA told him the Japanese proverb asagumo, the morning spider that brings fortune. “That’s when he clicked and I decided we should be making this rover,” Tanasyuk said.
Under the company Spacebit, he was able to realize his idea. Asagumo is expected to be launched in the third quarter of the year, in July, aboard the peregrine falcon developed by the US-based Astrobotic company. The Vulcan Centaur rocket will be overtaken by a hawk moon and will be the first lunar landing in the UK if all goes well, according to Science Focus.
The Asagumo rover will be 10 meters away from the lunar surface and beam full of full-definition video and 3D lidar data back to Earth from the onboard sensors, as seen in its first demonstration mission.
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What Asagumo wants to achieve
Asagumo is a spider robot that is also a moon rover powered by solar panels with the ability to jump with all four legs. There are also laser sensors, an HD camera to capture images, take video of lunar surfaces of peregrines, and take robot selfies. Tanasuyuk said Asagumo is the smallest rover to reach the Moon and the first moon with legs, Forbes said.
Asagumo can operate within one lunar day or the equivalent of ten days on Earth because the temperature drops too low and it can no longer work. But Tanasuyuk explains that their company hopes Asagumo will fulfill its mission in helping in the plans to send one back to the Moon.
Since studying the Moon required somewhere to survive, they are looking at the possibility of sealing the entrance of a lava tube as a shelter. According to a Slash Gear report, Spacebit believes Asagumo may play an important role in the study of lava pipelines.
His feet allow him to go on rough ground and explore areas where cyclists cannot go or climb wheels. But Spacebit also said that in the future they might design a rover that uses both a wheeled rover and a spider robot.
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