Even after decades of sci-fi franchises like Star Wars, we still can’t get enough of space — and that’s because there’s still room to render science fiction real.
With ongoing operations on Mars, Lunar Outpost Inc. is now working on getting to the moon and creating infrastructures that can serve as a launchpad to other planets.
“We’re really pushing out towards expanding the infrastructure on the lunar surface,” said Justin Cyrus (pictured, left), chief executive officer of Lunar Outpost. “And then we’re going to utilize that to provide sustainable access to other planetary bodies.”
Cyrus and Forrest Meyen (pictured, right), co-founder and chief strategy officer of Lunar Outpost, spoke with theCUBE industry analyst John Furrier at Amazon re:MARS 2022, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the company’s journey so far, its groundbreaking objectives, and the technologies driving its realization. (* Disclosure below.)
Going where no one has gone before
Lunar Outpost’s first item of action is reaching the moon’s south pole — toward a point deemed Shackleton connecting ridge. The company’s rover will roam across the surface, carrying out tasks such as materials examination and resource prospection, according to Meyen.
The company has already registered its presence on Mars, being part of the science team behind the Perseverance rover instrument, MOXIE (or Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment).
“It’s not just sustaining the astronauts, but also for producing oxygen for propellant,” Meyen stated. “So it’s a technology that’ll produce a propellant for return rockets to come back from Mars.”
It’s truly wonderful the leaps-and-bounds advancements within astronomy. But one thing on everyone’s mind is how soon “regular people” are going to be able to travel to the moon and Mars safely, reliably and cost effectively. That might be sooner rather than later, according to Cyrus.
“This is no longer 20 years away; it’s 12 months [the company’s first moon mission],” Cyrus said. “We have over a dozen landers that are headed to lunar surface this decade alone, and heavy lift landers and launchers will start going to the moon and coming back by 2025.”
One evolving technology the company is demonstrating is a 4G network for Nokia Corp.
“We’re providing them mobility services, which is basically like the old Verizon commercial, ‘Can you hear me now?’ … where the rover drives farther and farther away from the lander to test their signal strength, and then we’re going to have some other payloads ride-sharing along with us for the ride,” Meyen said.
Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Amazon re:MARS event:
(* Disclosure: This is an unsponsored editorial segment. However, theCUBE is a paid media partner for Amazon re:MARS. Amazon Web Services Inc. and other sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage have no editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)