Articles

Building Better Test Beds: Why Simulant Depth and Geometry Matter More Than You Think

Building Better Test Beds: Why Simulant Depth and Geometry Matter More Than You Think Every lunar rover wheel, ISRU excavator scoop, and regolith-moving robotic arm eventually has to prove itself somewhere before it ever leaves Earth. That "somewhere" is a...

How the Astro Farmer Lunar STEM Kit is Turning Kids into Space Researchers (And Slashing Screen Time!)

Getting kids to trade their tablets for a science project is a notorious modern parenting struggle. But what if you did not have to force them? What if, instead of asking them to do ‘homework,’ you recruited them for a...

Lunar highland simulant for moon mission

LHS-1 Lunar Simulant: Accelerating Moon Missions on Earth

Imagine you have spent millions of dollars designing a cutting edge rover that is able to travel to the moon's surface, only to have its mobility system fail in the abrasive lunar soil within minutes. There is no such thing...

The Lunar Economy Is Built in the Dirt

No Longer Just a Destination Apollo planted a flag. What's happening now is different in kind, not just scale: the Moon is becoming an operating environment — a place with recurring traffic, standing infrastructure, and a permanent human and robotic...

How to Raise the TRL of Your Space Technology

A practical guide to knowing where you stand and what evidence gets you to the next level Most teams building space hardware describe their maturity as a number. TRL 4. TRL 6. It appears on slides, in proposals, in investor...