- Title: Tiny walking rover bound for the moon
- Date: 10th October 2019
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (OCTOBER 10, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF SPACEBIT FOUNDER AND CEO PAVLO TANASYUK PREPARING TO REVEAL THE LUNAR ROVER TANASYUK REVEALING THE LUNAR ROVER LUNAR ROVER VARIOUS OF TANASYUK POSING WITH ROVER FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS MODEL OF THE MOON HANGING FROM THE ROOF OF THE EXHIBITION (SOUNDBITE) (English) PAVLO TANASYUK, SPACEBIT FOUNDER AND CEO SAYING: "We hope to land next to a lunar cave and go and explore the lunar tubes. It's very important to explore the lunar tubes to know the environment that we have there so potentially humans can live in those lunar tubes when they go back to the moon." VARIOUS OF TANASYUK HOLDING LUNAR ROVER (SOUNDBITE) (English) PAVLO TANASYUK, SPACEBIT FOUNDER AND CEO SAYING: "We believe that in space exploration what is important is to have low cost missions and this rover provides potential for very low cost missions. It's many, many times cheaper than any competition on the market." SPACEBIT STAND AT 'NEW SCIENTIST LIVE' EXHIBITION VARIOUS OF LUNAR ROVER MOTHERSHIP ON THE SPACEBIT STAND (SOUNDBITE) (English) PAVLO TANASYUK, SPACEBIT FOUNDER AND CEO SAYING: "This project is financed by private investors and in the future we're going to commercialise this robot by selling the data we get from the moon's surface. There will be lots of different data, we have different sensors here, we have cameras, we have LIDAR, we measure radiation and temperature levels so there is a data potential to be acquired and to be sold in the future, very valuable data for the future human missions on the moon. And also we are planning to potentially go into mass production of this rover so we can explore our solar system and run low cost missions to the moon and beyond." LUNAR ROVER MOTHERSHIP (SOUNDBITE) (English) TIM PEAKE, BRITISH ASTRONAUT SAYING: "The moon is fascinating in itself. It's like a museum really, a repository of four and a half billion years of solar system history. It can teach us an awful lot about our own planet but also about how the solar system was formed. But also, in terms of space exploration it's a natural stepping stone. It's only three days away from Earth so that lowers the risk. It makes resupply easier and in terms of learning how we live and work on another celestial body before we do that deep space mission to Mars I think it's a natural place to go to de-risk a Mars mission." CHILDREN LOOKING AT LUNAR ROVER (SOUNDBITE) (English) TIM PEAKE, BRITISH ASTRONAUT SAYING: "We do have big ambitions and we should have big ambitions because we have some fantastic technology industry within the UK. No, actually I'm really optimistic and quite excited. When you look at what's happening for example at Spaceport Cornwall and Spaceport Sutherland the UK has got the edge at the moment on becoming the first location in Europe to have horizontal and vertical launches into orbit and that's really exciting. And also just to point out of course that the European Space Agency is not part of the EU so Britain's membership of ESA post-Brexit will still be confirmed."
- Embargoed: 24th October 2019 15:16
- Keywords: lunar rover Spacebit founder CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Science,Space Exploration
- Reuters ID: LVA001B0IMNVF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A lunar rover which will explore the moon on foot in 2021 was unveiled in London on Thursday (October 10).
The new concept, with four legs rather than wheels, will send data back to a larger mothership, which will transmit it back to Earth.
UK startup Spacebit signed a contract with U.S. space robotics company Astrobotic to get the rover on board their Peregrine lander, which will carry 14 NASA instruments to the moon.
Once the lander reaches the moon's surface, the rover will drop from beneath it to the surface and attempt to explore a lava tube.
"It's very important to explore the lunar tubes to know the environment that we have there so potentially humans can live in those lunar tubes when they go back to the moon," SpaceBit founder and CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk told Reuters.
The rover is the smallest lunar rover ever and incorporates some off-the-shelf parts which drastically reduces the cost, according to SpaceBit.
"We believe that in space exploration what is important is to have low-cost missions and this rover provides potential for very low-cost missions. It's many, many times cheaper than any competition on the market," Tanasyuk said.
The first mission will see just one rover explore the surface for only one day, until the solar night falls and it ceases to operate. Spacebit says the plan is for subsequent missions to deploy swarms of rovers connected to motherships which protect them at night and relay the data back to Earth.
"In the future we're going to commercialize this robot by selling the data we get from the moon's surface... very valuable data for the future human missions on the moon. And also we are planning to potentially go into mass production of this rover so we can explore our solar system and run low-cost missions to the moon and beyond," Tanasyuk said.
British astronaut Tim Peake welcomed the Spacebit project and also said the UK's plans to develop its space industry would not be affected by Brexit.
"The European Space Agency is not part of the EU so Britain's membership of ESA post-Brexit will still be confirmed," Peake said.
Spacebit plans to run a competition to allow the public to choose the name for the new rover - despite a recent poll to name a new British research ship being won by 'Boaty McBoatface.'
(Reporting by Stuart McDill) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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