“Our main priority is making space accessible to the entire world, and we’re doing this through regular access to the surface of the moon.”
John Thornton CEO Astrobotic
W e all have keepsakes. Maybe you have some displayed in your home. Others might be safely stored in a box in the attic, only seeing the light of day for an annual holiday or family reunion. But what if your personal mementos could be stored somewhere out of this world, like the surface of the moon? It might sound crazy, but it’s possible. It’s just one service that Astrobotic—a Pittsburgh-based space robotics technology company—offers as part of its goal to make space accessible to the world.
two delivery contracts to take cargo to the moon. The first delivery is slated for later this year.
“Our main priority is making space accessible to the entire world, and we’re doing this through regular access to the surface of the moon,” Thornton said. “Scientists, explorers, brands and individuals in America and around the world are touching the moon’s surface in ways that were never possible before.”
Thornton and the Astrobotic team are establishing a human presence on the moon through space agencies that deliver science and exploration cargo and through corporations that view the moon as a unique canvas for marketing opportunities, like a Japanese drink company currently working on a time capsule campaign. In addition, any person can send meaningful mementos, family photos, art and much more using the company’s DHL MoonBox, which allows these keepsakes to be immortalized on the moon for centuries to come. Thinking Big Astrobotic isn’t satisfied with solely delivering products and resources to the moon’s surface. While space robotics and cargo delivery
One Small Step Founded 14 years ago by Dr. Red Whittaker, a roboticist and research professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Astrobotic was initially launched to pursue the Google Lunar X Prize, a space competition for privately funded teams to be the first to land a lunar rover on the moon. Several years later, John Thornton—a CMU alumnus who had been involved with Astrobotic as an engineer since its inception—became CEO and focused the company on government contracting and technology development. Under Thornton’s leadership, Astrobotic has prioritized delivering scientific instruments, technologies, ideas and innovations to space. Over the years, the company has built up its catalog of landers, rovers and other space
are at the core of the business, Thornton said plans include using rovers to drive cargo across the moon’s surface and provide the moon with power and communications infrastructure. Astrobotic’s second mission in 2023 will deliver a rover that will drill for water at the poles of the moon for the very first time.
technology to the point where NASA purchased its commercial payload services. Since 2018, NASA has awarded Astrobotic
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