AstroAnt Payload

AstroAnt was inspired by science fiction, drawing on the biomimetic notion of robot swarms in symbiosis with spacecraft for diagnostic and repair tasks. The MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative tested AstroAnt on four parabolic flights with NASA over the course of 2021, including multiple lunar-g and zero-g tests.

Learn more about AstroAnt

AstroAnt

Future in-space operations — across LEO (Low Earth Orbit), lunar missions, and out to Mars — will heavily leverage robotics and autonomy to increase systems performance, reduce risk to human crews, and contribute to mission success. Smaller, autonomous robots can provide greater functional flexibility, opportunities for fine-tuning and customization, and speed of task completion.

The AstroAnts constitute a miniature robotic swarm for inspections and diagnostic tasks on the external surfaces of spacecraft, rovers, and landers. Each robot features a modular design; the sensor payloads can be tailored based on different inspection missions, and the data collected from the robots can be used to monitor the operations of the spacecraft, rovers, and landers. Working with Lunar Outpost, we are sending one AstroAnt robot to the Moon for a technology demonstration test.

The robot will be operating on the top surface of the Lunar Outpost MAPP-1 rover, equipped with a thermopile on its bottom surface for contact-less temperature measurements of the MAPP-1 rover radiator. With mobility in the Lunar gravity environment, the robot can measure temperature from different positions on the radiator and help with monitoring the performance of the thermal system, which is one of the most crucial systems of the rover. Leveraging magnetic wheels, the robot can attach to and move along the top rover surface. Both the robot and central station are equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) capability for wireless data transfer. The AstroAnt will be the first-ever miniature robotic mission on the Lunar surface, gathering data that will inform NASA's Artemis III crewed mission and demonstrating cutting-edge robotic swarms technology for planetary and deep-space exploration.

Special thanks to our research collaborator

Below, check out a behind-the-scenes look at Castrol's visit to the Lab