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SpaceRadar | Payload Selection Tool

Griffin

Company Name: Astrobotic Technology, USA

Available for future missions 

Planned Missions: Griffin Mission One (GM1)

First Mission Launch: Q4 2024

Payload Delivery Locations: First mission planned to land at Nobile Region - Lunar South Pole, 89.5°S and 1°E. 

Astrobotic’s landers can deliver payloads to lunar orbit as well as the lunar surface.

Lunar Orbit 1 (LO1) - 100 km x 8700 km, Lunar Orbit 2 (LO2) - 100 km x 750 km, Lunar Orbit 3 (LO3) - 100 km x 100 km

Lunar Surface - Polar regions, PM1 : Lacus Mortis, Skylights, Pits, or Caves, Equatorial, Mid-Latitute, Craters, Far Side regions 

Payload capacity - TLI (Trans Lunar Injection): 663 kg

Payload capacity - To Orbit: 515 kg

Payload capacity - To Surface: 500 kg

Payload bay (size): 1.53 X 1.53 X 2.45 m (VIPER rover) 

Power distribution (for payload): 1W per kg (average) 

Cost: 

To lunar orbit - US $300,000/kg

To the lunar surface - US $1,200,000/kg

For deploying a rover - US $4,500,000/kg 

Communications available: The lander-Earth connection uses X-Band range for uplink and downlink space communications. 

The lander-payload connection is provided via Serial RS-422 or SpaceWire for wired communication throughout the mission. Following landing, a 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.11n compliant WLAN modem enables wireless communication between the lander and deployed payloads on the lunar surface. Griffin relays payload telecommands and telemetry in near real-time. 

Lander provides 10 kbps Bandwidth per Kg of payload 

Expected working duration: 8+ Earth days 

Astrobotic provides Technical support, Payload integration and mission services for the customers. 

First Mission Ship manifest: 

1) NASA’s VIPER - Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, is a mobile robot that will go to the South Pole of the Moon to get a close-up view of the location and concentration of water ice that could eventually be harvested to sustain human exploration on the Moon, Mars — and beyond. VIPER represents the first resource mapping mission on another celestial body 

First Mission Launch vehicle: Falcon Heavy, SpaceX

Last Updated on August 2022

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