Voyager Technologies's Griffin-1 clears JPL tests for CLPS moon mission
Voyager Technologies's Griffin-1 lunar lander just passed some tough environmental tests at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.
These checks, covering wild temperature swings, intense vibrations, and loud noise, were the final hurdles before its first trip to the moon later this year with NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
Griffin-1 to carry Astrolab's FLIP rover
Griffin-1 will carry over 499kg of gear near the lunar south pole, including science experiments and Astrolab's FLIP rover with a history-making supercomputer onboard.
The mission aims to help us learn more about the lunar surface and move closer to NASA's big dream: building a human base on the moon.
As Charles Whetsel, manager for the Exploration Systems Development Office at JPL, said in a statement, "NASA JPL's Environmental Test Laboratory has been putting robotic explorers to the test since the Ranger program gave us NASA's first up-close views of the moon's surface in the mid-1960s. We're proud to provide our expertise and facilities to support this new phase of commercial lunar exploration."