Matthew Nelson
Maxar Technologies has received a $5M contract from NASA to build and deliver a robotic arm that will work to gather sample materials from the Moon’s surface as part of the agency’s Artemis mission.
The Sample Acquisition, Morphology Filtering and Probing of Lunar Regolith, or SAMPLR, technology employs components from the Mars Exploration rover and will be integrated into a commercial lander vehicle to help validate the geotechnical traits of the Moon’s topsoil, the company said Tuesday.
The arm will join 11 other payloads that will assist in NASA’s lunar exploration mission in 2024.
Megan Fitzgerald, senior vice president and general manager at Maxar’s space infrastructure segment, said the firm is currently building a technology that will enable the assembly and maintenance of spacecraft and associated infrastructure while in orbit.
Aside from SAMPLR, Maxar has started production efforts on robotic tools that will support NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s missions.
