07/09/2023
Castrol is proud to announce our membership with the MIT Media Lab, supporting research on lunar landings.
As research collaborators with the MIT Media Lab AstroAnt Payload Program, we're diving into the incredible world of miniature robotic swarms. These AstroAnts are designed to perform inspections and run diagnostics on the surfaces of spacecraft, rovers, and landers. With modular design and customisable sensor payloads, the data collected from these tiny robots can be used to monitor operations in space.
Castrol will work closely with the MIT Media Lab to test space-grade lubricants to withstand the extreme environment of the lunar surface enabling the AstroAnt robot’s motors to function as it collects thermal data and measurements when it is sent to the Moon on the Lunar Outpost MAPP Rover.
“We are delighted to have this opportunity to send cutting-edge experiments to the surface of the moon on a historic mission and as part of MIT’s To the Moon to Stay program,” states Dr. Ariel Ekblaw, Director of the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative, and Primary Investigator for MIT’s lunar mission with Lunar Outpost. “Our payloads represent core tenets of our research, from autonomous swarm robotics to supporting future VR-mediated -exploration by lunar astronauts, to democratizing access to space through the messages we carry with us. This mission, enabled by NASA CLPS, also marks a major milestone for researchers—we can now reach the moon faster and more economically than ever before.”
Watch this space as to follow Castrol and the AstroAnt Payload Program on this mission to the moon - castrol.com/moon