A year passed after that, as a team from small company Starpath took second place in NASA's Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, and now the developers visited the Marshall Space Center in Huntsville (State of Alabama). As part of the prize program, they tested an improved version of their lunar rover, intended for the extraction and transportation of regolith, in a thermovacuum chamber, capable of simulating conditions on the surface of the Moon.
Contest, in which Starpath participated, is part of NASA's Centennial Challenges series. The Centennial Challenges program is designed to stimulate innovation and engage the private sector in technology development, which can later be used in missions to the Moon and Mars. Testing such technologies in collaboration with NASA allows teams to refine their solutions and create useful developments for future space missions.
The Starpath rover is capable of mining, collection and transportation of regolith in extreme conditions, similar to the environment of the South Pole of the Moon. The design of the robot involves a double drum, which extends from the body like the "claws" of a crab, loosens and captures the dense layer of regolith, providing fast digging with minimal energy consumption.
The main goal of the company is to improve the technology for use in the permanently shadowed regions of the South Pole of the Moon, where, за даними NASA, regolith layers contain ice. This resource is seen as key to future Artemis missions, because it can be used to obtain drinking water and produce rocket fuel.
Source: https://www.spacedaily.com