Monday, October 8, 2012

Moon Prospecting Rover Unveiled by CMU Spin-off


Alumni gather around William "Red" Whittaker in the Gates Center during Cèilidh Weekend as he presents Polaris, a lunar rover that will prospect the underground water and gas resources discovered as ice on the moon two years ago. (credit: Jonathan Carreon/Photo Editor)

Polaris Moon rover rolled out for Lunar Robot Open House

Sci/Tech |

Pittsburgh-based space robotics company Astrobotic Technology, Inc. rolled out the first prototype of its lunar ice prospecting robot, Polaris, in the Gates Center (Carnegie Mellon University Gates Center for Computer Science) at its first official public unveiling.

As a part of the Cèilidh Weekend festivities, the Lunar Robot Open House brought students, staff, family, and alumni around a stage that held Polaris as William “Red” Whittaker spoke about the rover. A Robotics Institute professor and Astrobotic’s CEO, Whittaker described the goal of Polaris: to explore the vast underground water and gas resources discovered as ice on the Moon two years ago.

Polaris, equipped with a drill and other prospecting equipment, can answer questions about the gas that satellite data cannot. “What is it, what is it made of, where is it, what is its concentration, can you extract it, can you use it?” Whittaker said. “[Polaris] changes everything.”

More - Link >>> http://thetartan.org/2012/10/8/scitech/lunarrobot

Source: The Tartan student newspaper of Carnegie Mellon University.

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