Feb 26, 2011

GLXP Lander Mock-Up Construction Video

Getting hardware built is a key goal for our GLXP team.

The video embedded below shows some of the team's early work on a mock-up of the lander - a full scale and accurate representation of the current White Label Space mission design.



The lander mock-up work started in summer 2010 with a simple cardboard design, which soon after was upgraded to a stronger wooden box. Steel legs and mock-ups of the externally mounted equipment were also added in late 2010.

Work is continuing now on adding functionality to the key equipment onboard the lander and integrated testing with our Japanese rover prototype is planned for later this year (the rover appearing in the video is just a placeholder).


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Feb 13, 2011

Adriaan Rijkens

Adiraan Rijkens is the Media Liaison for White Label Space.

Adriaan is a Masters student studying at the Nyenrode Business Universiteit. In 2010 he completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial Engineering & Management at the Professional University of Amsterdam.

Adriaan has a great fascination for the space industry and the commercial space industry in particular. He has set up the Givemeaspaceflight.com foundation and helped with the establishment of the International Space Transport (ISTA).

Adriaan has an entrepreneurial attitude that can underlined by his personal motto: 'Just Do It'.

Members of the media can contact Adriaan at: Adriaan.Rijkens@whitelabelspace.com

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Feb 11, 2011

Jeremy Fielding

Dr Jeremy Fielding is the Lead System Engineer the White Label Space lunar lander.

During his 15 years working as a system engineer in the UK aerospace and electronics sectors, Jeremy worked on numerous advanced engineering projects. Some of his more notable roles included being the lead mission systems engineer for penetrator design studies for the Jovian moons and Mars, as well as managing bids and small studies for lunar and deep space missions.

Jeremy received his PhD in 2004 from the Surrey Space Centre on the topic of Mars exploration possibilities using an airborne VTOL (VTVL) platform.

In 2008 Jeremy reached the Level-3 applicant pool of the ESA astronaut programme selection.

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Feb 10, 2011

Media Corner

Media Coverage

Follow THIS LINK for a list of news stories about White Label Space.

Media Contact

The media is invited to contact the team by the following means:
email) info@whitelabelspace.com
phone) +31 715 795 535
mail) Huygensstraat 34, 2201 DK, Noordwijk (ZH), THE NETHERLANDS

Press Kit

The following photos of the teams GLXP mission hardware are provided free for use by media in any articles mentioning the White Label Space GLXP team. Click on the images to see the maximum resolution jpeg files. Further content can be provided on request (see contact details above).



Feb 9, 2011

emxys Developing Minature Intertial Measurement Unit

Our electronics partner emxys is developing a minature lightweight Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) for our mission in the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP). The video embedded below shows a prototype being demonstrated by emxys director, Francisco Garcia-de-Quiros.

The IMU will be a key component for the WLS mission, helping the lander to achieve its soft touchdown on the lunar surface. It is designed to be an accurate and reliable instrument within a minimum volume.

The target performance is to achieve a resolution better than 1º in attitude estimation with a power consumption under 1W. Its minimized mass and volume will enable small satellite missions to achieve unsurpassed attitude estimation capabilities.

The GLXP presents a fantastic technology demonstration opportunity for such technology, and emxys intends to transform the IMU into a commercial product for the space market.

Feb 8, 2011

Mars is About to Get a Bit Closer

The Austrian Space Forum (ÖWF) is going to Mars, and some of the steps on that journey are taking place here on Earth very soon.

Stay tuned for more information, including how our White Label Space GLXP team will be involved...


Rio Tinto 2011 from Austrian Space Forum on Vimeo.

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Feb 2, 2011

How to colonise the Moon with a 3D printer

IT'S one thing to land on the Moon and trundle a rover around, but another thing entirely to build something when we get there.

If we're to mine the lunar surface for silver or tap its water supplies, we'll need infrastructure.

Considering it's taken 13 years to bolt the International Space
Station together piece by piece, it's not hard to imagine what kind of timeframe we're looking at to establish an entire working community on the Moon.

But here's a thought - can we print everything we need?

Wait, stay with me here.

What can you make with a 3D printer? Up until now, it's been mainly small items. Models, ceramics, small mass-produced components.



But several advances lately strongly suggest 3D printing will be anything but a cottage industry in the future.

In a nutshell, 3D printers work like a regular old-fashioned dot matrix printer, but instead of laying down ink, they lay down particles which build up to form an object.

Some machines start with a solid block of gel or vat of polymer and use lasers to harden it layer by layer into the shape required before washing away the excess.

A couple of years ago, a team at Bowling Green State University created a system which bonded ceramic powders into a type of clay which could be fired.

So how about a 3D printer in which it's big enough to print a brick house or a laboratory?

It certainly cuts down on lugging large amounts of materials to the Moon. Basically, we just need to transport a few tanks of polymer each trip.

Weight's not exactly an issue on the Moon. It could trundle around happily until it found a suitable site, run off off a small neighbourhood and give us a bell back on Earth when it's time to call the removalists.

"Sea of Tranquility, sir? Fine choice. Will that be hi-res or lo-res?"

What about transport? That's been done too. Just last year in the US, Kor Ecologic ran off the first hybrid vehicle ever to be completely drawn by a 3D printer.

Organ-printing's an interesting one that might also come in handy.

Research suggests that our bodies don't take too well to life in microgravity.

Kidney disease and urinary tract problems are among those noted in astronauts and there's an ongoing study into the possibility that bacteria are more resistant to antibiotics in space.

Certainly, bone density is a major issue, but organ printing is already well advanced here on Earth.

Instead of laying down powders, 3D printers deposit living cells onto gel structures, making the possibility of printing entire organs very real indeed.

3D printing our entire lives on the Moon? You know it makes sense.

All we need is someone who knows how to fix the paper jams.