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 by Staff Writers Boston MA (SPX) Feb 24, 2022
This year NASA hopes to return astronauts to the Moon as early as March or April. Strategically, the Moon has something essential for life in space: water. Lunar ice can supply oxygen for human life and hydrogen fuel for deep space travel. But, navigating the dangerous Lunar surface is not for the faint of heart. You wouldn't build a home on sand. Would you? The Moon is no different. Wrong calculation could mean disaster and loss of life. Outside the protection of our home planet, deep space is dangerous. Particles and radiation emanating from the Sun can spark cancer and irreversible maladies. According to the Associated Press, new measurements show the Moon has hazardous radiation levels. The prospect of a Lunar base necessitates that we find the safest location on its surface. Lunar Station, an MIT spinout, provides a new generation of Lunar intelligence for exploration, discovery, and commercial organizations planning and pursuing missions on the Moon. Similar to the function of land use planning on Earth, Lunar Station helps to guide decisions on land evaluation and use for maximum potential with least risks. It involves the execution and interpretation of surveys of topography, elevation, soils, and other aspects of land, including potential deposits of Lunar ice and precious minerals underground. Lunar Station's insights fill critical knowledge gaps on the lunar surface by providing detailed surveys that identify the best location to build lunar bases and mining missions to identify large rare earth minerals deposits. With access to multispectral sensor data, the MIT startup evaluates potential building areas taking into consideration terrain instability, radiation bursts, electromagnetic interference or even meteorite strikes. Lunar Station provides advanced analytics using an automated interpretation of a range of structured and unstructured multispectral sensor data sources. These include multi- and hyperspectral datasets in the visible (VIS), near-infrared (NIR), and shortwave infrared (SWIR), as well as thermal infrared (TIR), passive microwave, X-ray, gamma-ray, gravitational, magnetic, small-aperture radar (SAR) and topographic data from satellite, rover and ground-based sensors. The objective is to accelerate and streamline an organization's research and decision making process by offering Lunar Station's SaaS platform for easy access to mission critical insights. Key benefits of Lunar Station's platform: + Optimal mission locations + Accelerate access to insights + Improved risk reduction + Reduced R and D workload "We've invested in Lunar Station Corp because performing Lunar missions without them would be analogous to going in blind. Lunar Station Corp mitigates land terrain, environmental and electromagnetic radiation risks by identifying the optimal site for commercial, exploration and research missions. They provide the eyes, ears and nose to the Moon," states Scott Amyx, Managing Partner at Astor Perkins, a deep tech and sustainability VC that backs mavericks solving some of the hardest problems facing humanity on Earth and in space. MoonHacker is Lunar Station's cloud-based deep learning framework that retrieves and synthesizes structured and unstructured multispectral sensor datasets into foundational insights that enable scientific, governmental and commercial organizations to identify, plan, simulate and evaluate scenarios to maximize mission outcomes. This includes discerning water concentrations in shaded areas of interest. For instance, recently Lunar Station in partnership with Lunar Resources Registry identified a location on the far-side of the Moon where a planned observatory has less interference from the noise of Earth. It's nestled in a shallow ear-shaped crater, making the location ideal for a scientific observatory operation, be it a radio telescope or asteroid detection observatory. The far side of the Moon is thought to be a convenient location for a low-frequency radio telescope. It's not exposed to radio transmissions from the Earth. An absence of Lunar atmospheric and ionospheric noise enables ultra-long wavelength observations. Radio frequency interference is produced by human activities, such is the case on the Earth with the use of military and commercial transmitters, satellites, or cell phones. Additionally, because of the Moon's synchronous rotation, the far side is never faced towards the Earth. It will never be affected by the volume of noise and interference affecting Earth observations. Another critical function of a radio telescope located on the lunar far side would be detection and prediction of potential collision with astronomical objects like asteroids, and near Earth objects. Lunar Station analyzed the "Ear" using their MoonHacker platform. See attached images of their analyses.
NASA opens second phase of $5 Million Lunar Power Prize Competition Huntsville AL (SPX) Feb 24, 2022 Under Artemis, NASA plans to return to the Moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. This will require lunar surface systems that can deliver continuous, reliable power to support mining and construction, research activities, and human habitation. The newest phase of NASA's Watts on the Moon Challenge offers up to $4.5 million in prizes to design, build, and demonstrate a prototype that addresses technology gaps in power transmission and energy stora ... read more
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