The space race has been a contest between the major powers for decades.
However, in recent years the private sector has taken an active role in the space industry. Now it’s the students’ turn. Bloomberg recently reported that Carnegie Mellon University students are planning to send a shoebox-sized robot to the moon in May. A private rocket flies to the moon carrying 14 cargoes, including NASA objects and Iris.
According to the introduction website, the name of the robot is Iris. It is a project in which regarding 300 Carnegie Mellon University students participated. It will be the first robot made by students to explore the lunar surface. The control center was installed at the Iris Control Center on the Pittsburgh CMU campus. Students plan to control the machine here.
Iris weighs 2 kg (4.4 lbs). intentionally designed to be small.
However, it is possible to capture lunar dust images with just two cameras. Due to battery capacity limitations, it can only operate for a total of 50 hours on the lunar surface.
Space travel isn’t cheap. Some civilians have paid $55 million each to visit the space station in 2022. Iris cost regarding $800,000. Part of the funding came from Carnegie Mellon University, and the rest came from private donors and crowdsourced funds.
“Hundreds of students have put in thousands of hours,” Raewin Duval, Iris program director, told Carnegie Mellon University. “We’ve been working on this mission for years, so we’re excited to put the launch date on the calendar.”
Meanwhile, another Carnegie Mellon University student intends to send a lunar rover later this year. The probe, named the Moon Ranger, is funded by NASA and is heading to the south pole of the Moon. There, they plan to explore whether there is ice on the moon. “If the ice is sufficiently concentrated that water can be extracted, it might be an important resource for living and working on the moon,” the introduction website said.
The Carnegie Mellon University Iris Luna rover team did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
