Astrobotic

Have teamed up with Otsuka, Carnegie Mellon, Caterpillar, and SpaceX to win the Lunar Xprize.

‘Icebreaker’ will send its “Griffin” lander to deliver the Otsuka timecapsule and then deploy a mobile prospector "Polaris" to explore for methane, ammonia, and water at the Moon’s north pole.

Griffin

Launch has been set for October 2015 using a Falcon 9 to LEO then the second stage re-ignites for trans-lunar injection (TLI) to propel Astrobotic’s spacecraft into a 4.5-day cruise to the moon.

Polaris

Polaris prospects for water at the lunar poles. Polaris has vertical solar panels to generate 250W of power and two radiator panels to reject excess heat. Stereo cameras and laser are used to guide Polaris and generate 3-D video and models of the lunar surface. The robot communicates directly with Earth using a pointed S-band antenna to receive commands and send video and data. Polaris carries up to 80kg of payload, such as a drill to take core samples and science instruments to identify water content. Polaris is capable of driving and avoiding obstacles autonomously, including traverses into dark regions in the lunar pole’s long shadows. Polaris’ suspension maintains four-wheel ground contact over sloped and rocky lunar terrain without the use of springs. Surface operations are carefully preplanned to maintain unobstructed views of the sun for power and the earth for communication.

The robot will explore for ten days until the 14-day cryogenic lunar night begins, then hibernate, recover at sunrise, and continue to explore. The lander and rover are both built to tolerate this cryogenic cold.