From Joe Tegtmeyer.
During the Everyday Astronaut’s third annual Astro Awards event, I was able to discuss a new rover design called FLIP with some of Astrolab’s employees and thought this would make an excellent short video to highlight some of the innovative technologies that may well play a big role in the long-term NASA and commercial human habitation plans on both the Moon and Mars!
So, what is the Astrolab Flex Lunar Innovative Platform (FLIP) and what makes the wheel design so innovative? Why did they have to come up with a new design since we already saw lunar rovers during the Apollo era and even see rovers operating on Mars? Let’s discuss!
Astrolab is a new commercial space company that is participating in the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program and is pioneering new ways to explore and operate on distant planetary bodies. We’re singularly focused on designing, building, and operating a fleet of multi-purpose commercial planetary rovers to extend and enhance humanity’s presence in the solar system.
FLIP is Astrolab’s technology demonstration platform that will be Astrolab’s first rover to deploy on the lunar surface, scheduled to land at the Lunar South Pole in Summer 2026 as part of Griffin Mission 1.
FLIP is a key step in Astrolab’s rapid spiral development approach: design-build-test-fly cycles that demonstrate increased capabilities and incorporate lessons learned during development and qualification testing and has the capacity to bring technologies and payloads to the Lunar South Pole.
One of the technologies that makes Astrolab’s FLIP rovers unique is the wheel design that takes lessons learned from the past Apollo and Mars Lunar Rover wheels and completely rethinks the overall approach with long-term, sustainable operation far more than what has been envisioned before. The technology being demonstrated with this design could well be a critical enabling capability to realize long-term habitation and operations on the lunar and Mars surfaces.
I hope you enjoy this discussion about the wheel and tire designs and that you found the information helpful! Thank you for your support and for watching!
Link to Astrolab for more information and details:
https://www.astrolab.space/flip-rover/
