Astrolab Advances Lunar Mobility with FLEX Rover

[@stuartyoung4182]

FINALLY - some REALISTIC imagery of autonomous and human operations on the lunar surface, during the early phases of establishing a small lunar base! Looks like the Astrolab FLEX (Flexible Logistics and Exploration) rover, the first cargo commercially-contracted to be delivered to the lunar surface via SpaceX's Lunar Starship, will REALLY enable such operations! I LOVE the animations of Lunar Starship landing and off-loading cargo - (even two landed Starships are shown simultaneously!), and FLEX deploying solar panels, moving habitats around, and serving as a "chariot" for astronauts! FINALLY, a WORTHY successor to Apollo...ONLY took us 50+ YEARS (I was 12 when we last visited the Moon in 1972)...PLEASE, U.S. government, do NOT cancel this!!! THANK YOU ASTROLAB AND SPACEX!!!

[@regolith1350]

A startup founded by former SpaceX and JPL employee. I feel like the commercial civilian Space Age is finally starting.

[@DavidNagy03ER]

This is brilliant Well done!

[@manumeehl]

I would love to see this becoming reality 🤩

[@exoplanetas]

Good job 👍

[@Wandering_John]

what is the recharging capabilities? I see the solar panels on the side, is that enough? what is the approx battery life? Can't wait to see it in action

[@Chleosl]

A decade ago, spaceX was an subcontract company worked for space mission accomplished and established for NASA. And now, the market had changed. Economy grafted and integrated in the means of space transportation, the Technological advance, the Intervention of capital and ideas in the terms of advantment of means of production and Society, technology, new and advancing environment for mankind, space had now moved on to the civill process. What an forwarding future and humankind. Our species. Now spaceX lead and draw the advancement of space industries. Wow.

[@atptourfan]

Awesome and realistic. Can't wait to see these on the moon!

[@s.sinster]

I think the distance the FLEX is being exported out of is too high a few retractible stability rods should help with that, or you have a center of mass at the bottom

[@robingannaway8262]

How about an option of a canopy for the driver and co driver.

[@kdwoell1]

Clean. Simple. Looks like it should work.

[@antonnym214]

Very nice! I like those airless wheels. Very reminiscent of Michelin. How big are they?

[@viarnay]

there is a prototype being tested actually..doesn't look fancy but its working..

[@zachb1706]

This is the prototype in person kzbin.info/www/bejne/qn7ZXpV5mKd0i6csi=Hvzn3rbMc-0GmPvi

[@zachb1706]

Wheels aren’t too big.

[@viarnay]

@@zachb1706 so what?

[@zachb1706]

@@viarnay KZbin deleted my first comment. It was a link to an interview Angry Astronaut had with Astrolab’s founder just a few days ago. Pretty interesting, should check it out. But in it he gets up close to a prototype which shows the wheel’s not that big. Pretty cool tech still

[@MrHichammohsen1]

Why isn't this the most viewed video on KZbin yet? Please go follow their social network accounts.

[@LukePrail]

Very cool

[@Obseltoro]

Muy bueno...la idea de robot colaborando con los humanos con semi independecia en tareas.

[@dmytrobeznoshchenko3770]

Let’sGoFlex🚀

[@estevens4654]

This is the best rendering of what our future looks like❤❤. Awesome. Can u make a full-blown movie or mini movie😊 depicting the colonization as a collab effort between private and corporate.

[@doublemymoney5056]

I think by having the astronauts hang on to the back of this vehicle increases mission risk, although it's a great idea to have a multi-use vehicle like this.

[@zachb1706]

They can sit. Also the speeds are pretty low

[@mr.g937]

I don't think it makes sense at all for astronauts to do EVAs for development. The robots should do everything and the astronauts should stay in a pressurized rover.

[@zachb1706]

@@mr.g937 robots are slow and incapable of performing many tasks.

[@KeithRowley]

That's what I thought, too @double. I yelled, "buckle up" right before they took off, so maybe they have seatbelts.

[@mr.g937]

@@zachb1706 While true, robots don't get tired, don't need oxygen, don't need food and water, and can work 24 hours a day. Certainly that more than makes up for any deficiency in effectiveness.

[@m7mds91]

Amazing 🤩

[@ChristopherLecky]

why is society more inspired by the creativity of others than their own? because 90% are similarly of value rather than being uniquely of value....

[@aminkhandrishak6045]

Amazing

[@FLORIDIANMILLIONAIRE]

The ground clearance is too low it will get stuck or tip over anyways people don't even have a few dollars to buy sandwiches in the morning in America any sandwich they like and you are talking about moon landing where will money come from and who will pay for it not the people who are looking to eat in nice coffee shops and beautiful places on beaches with nice women in bikinis serving non alcoholic cocktails !

[@Olson2BW]

There is one BIG thing missing from this video. Yes, you can get things off of Starship and onto the ground. BUT, you WILL need another kind of robot moving things in smaller scales. What? Say you have a box or boxes with more boxes or things inside the boxes. How is this vehicle going to take those things out and put things together? Not astronauts as we won't be ready for astronauts to be going to the moon for the first X number of times that cargo will be delivered to the moon. Optimus (Tesla's robot) is the answer to this (which Astrolab might be thinking too but just not showing or talking about it) to taking things out of boxes and putting things together. Need a habitat ("hab") for people to live in and work? You do NOT want astronauts building it. You want something like Optimus putting it together so that when humans get to the moon they will be able to be in a "building" (a.k.a. habitat a.k.a "hab") where they can be warm, can breath, can take off their spacesuits and sleep and do everything. Yes, they would live in Starship but Starship will need to blast off and go back and pick up more cargo and eventually astronauts. Oh, and who/what is going to build the concrete (other?) surface that Starship is going to be landing on over and over and over again. You don't want the spaceships (Starships) landing on the lunar surface as the material on the moon is HIGHLY corrosive. You want to move around as little of that surface as possible so you have one flight where you deliver all the water and product to create as big of a pad as you need. Also, you might want a cement/concrete/other surface for the habs to sit on as you obviously don't want people inside the hab walking around on the moon's surface inside. You can't avoid it on most of the moon but you limit that as much as possible on the surface. Anyway, I think that in the beginning and maybe for the long haul, versions of Optimus will be what is doing the work and I think Tesla, SpaceX and Astrolab are figuring on that too. Because what else is out there that is American made that could do this job? Boston Robots is a Chinese company now so it isn't them. They would have been the obvious choice before Optimus. Now what? I think Optimus is that choice and it will be ready well before they need it to. And keep in mind, worse case scenario, say that the software isn't ready but the hardware for Optimus is. No problem. Just like Tesla cars, Optimus is software upgradable and very easy to do. So you can download new software and have infinite versions of the software for different Optimus robots doing different dangerous, repetitive work leaving the astronauts to do what Optimus can't do ... yet. And they can have lots of different hardware versions of Optimus for different types of jobs. They have all the parts they need for most versions and they can make parts (even 3D print them on the moon) for different sizes and shapes and styles of Optimus in the future.

[@EarnestWilliamsGeofferic]

I love you so much.

[@Lethgar_Smith]

Im not an engineer but Im telling you, that landing gear is a joke. There's no way that you can rely on something that unstable to land on the moon and hope to survive. If it ever works they will need something twice as large and capable of dealing with a broad variety of topography. Because if that thing falls over, they're dead. They're not coming back. That's the end of the mission. Every time I seen an animation of SpaceX landing on the Moon, all I can think of is, "how is that not going to tip over!"

[@انسانمرده]

اگر انسانیت نباشه به هیچ دردی نمیخوره

[@craigcorson3036]

SOLAR powered? Who's the genius who called THAT shot? You do realize that it gets dark on the moon for half of every month, right?

[@codetech5598]

Why would they drive it in the dark?

[@richardconway6425]

Surely you realise that there are places on the moon which are constantly exposed to sunlight?

[@richardconway6425]

@@codetech5598 cast your mind back to the last time you drove your car in the dark. Why did you do that?

[@craigcorson3036]

@@richardconway6425 Sure, the poles. Do you think that we should restrict our explorations of the moon to the poles??

[@richardconway6425]

@@craigcorson3036 I'm not saying that, because there might be compelling reasons to go elsewhere, but I think there seems to be a consensus that the lunar south pole would be a very good place to start. Perch the base somewhere on the rim of Shackleton crater, and we have near perpetual sunlight, and hopefully a supply of frozen water in the dark cold depths of the crater, where sunlight never reaches. But, having said that, I think any sensible plan will have a range of energy supplies, cos the lives of the astronauts will depend on it. So that would be solar, some battery backup, RTG, perhaps even a 'proper' nuclear device, like a small modular reactor, or whatever they're calling them these days. Thing is, even a small meteorite could put a bit of a crimp on everyone's day. 😨

[@gordmckay7375]

STILL CANT SEE HOW THEY GOT SHADOWS WHEN THERE IS NO ATMOSPHERE

[@Delta-V-Heavy]

Shadows have nothing to do with atmosphere, to my knowledge.

[@StormyWeather21]

dear god lol sigh what! lol

[@richardconway6425]

@gordmckay 1. Don't write in all caps 2. Don't be a moron.

[@mr.g937]

Someone give this man a science textbook

[@visionentertainment8006]

So dumb 🤦🏾‍♂️