Austrian Space Forum Visit

On Thursday 27th October 2011 the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) visited the White Label Space headquarters in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. This video shows an informal presentation by White Label Space Chairman, Andrew Barton. He provides some information about the location of the headquarters, as well as a general status report of the GLXP team and its plans for the coming period. The OeWF is a partner of White Label Space, and the two organizations cooperate for field tests.

CAMbrain Support for Rover PM2 Manufacturing

White Label Space's Rover Prototype Model #2 (PM2) is under development in Tokyo, Japan. This video (in Japanese) shows WLS engineers visiting a partner factory, CAMbrain, which is responsible for manufacturing parts for the Rover's suspension and structure. CAMbrain possesses strong skills in metal processing.

Luke Weston LCA2011 Talk Online

As we posted earlier, Luke Weston from our open source partner Lunar Numbat recently gave a talk at lac2011 (the Linux of Australasia).

You can now watch his complete talk online at this link.

During his talk Luke gave an update on some of Lunar Numbat's ongoing developments, and in particular, his latest progress on the throttle control avionics and radar altimeter.

Lunar Numbat is currently developing hardware for AUSROC 2.5, a sounding rocket of the Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI). After demonstrating the designs on the rocket, space-qualified versions will be developed for use on the White Label Space lunar lander.

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Lunar Numbat Leader Marco Ostini TEDx Talk

Marco Ostini will talk at TEDx on the 23rd of October in Canberra, Australia.

His talk titled "Seeking answers from spacebound marsupials" will explain how our partner Lunar Numbat is contributing to our brandless White Label Space mission, and why space science is good in general.

The abstract for his talk:

"As Project Leader and founder of Lunar Numbat, Marco Ostini is working to combine the vitality and innovation of Open Source technologies with Space Science; essential for the survival of humanity, yet floundering, generally misunderstood and inaccessible to most people. 

Lunar Numbat is a team of Australian and New Zealander volunteers using Open Source technologies and their skill to build mission-critical parts. These parts are needed to help their partner White Label Space win the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP); an international private competition to safely land a rover on the moon, travel more than 500 meters and transmit back high definition video and images.

Why go to the moon? It’s our companion world, our off shore island. Invariably when you learn about the moon, you learn about the Earth. In more ways than may seem self evident, they’re linked.
Along the way Lunar Numbat is helping the Australian Space Research Institute with AUSROC 2.5, and cooperating with others, all to further the goal of lowering the barrier to entry that surrounds Space Science, and expand the horizons of all people.

Space Science contains the answers to the questions we don’t yet realise we should be asking."

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New Partner Airborne Composites to Provide Advanced Composites for GLXP Mission

PRESS RELEASE  
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
   

Airborne Composites to Partner with

White Label Space Team in $30 Million Google Lunar X PRIZE

 

Noordwijk – The Netherlands, 1 July 2010, today White Label Space announces its latest Partner, Airborne Composites B.V. 

Airborne is a developer of advanced composite products and technologies for space and other industries, and will provide lightweight high performance composite structures for White Label Space's no-name robotic mission to land on the moon.

White Label Space is one of twenty one teams around the world competing in the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a competition for privately-funded teams to send a robotic mission to surface of the Moon and transmit a data package including photos and HD videos back to Earth.
 
With competences covering the full range of composite manufacturing techniques, as well as in-house engineering for product design and development, Airborne is an ideal partner for the White Label Space moon landing mission.
 

Image: Satellite CFEsat with 4 deployable panels built by Airborne, operational in orbit since March 2007

Minimizing the weight of space mission hardware is extremely important for mission success and this is especially true for Moon landing missions which require a very large change in velocity, or 'delta-V'. Advanced composite materials are an efficient and cost-effective way to make lightweight structures.
 
Sandor Woldendorp, Business Manager Space at Airborne, commented on the partnership: “Joining the White label Space team gives Airborne the opportunity to show our competences in design and build of composite structures for space applications. The Google Lunar X PRIZE offers a great challenge in terms of applying our space-proven composite technologies to fly on this moon exploration mission with White Label Space.”

Airborne is the ninth Partner to join the White Label Space team. The eight existing Partners include non-profit groups, private companies and universities. All the Partners bring unique and valuable capabilities to the White Label Space team.
 
About Airborne
Airborne Composites B.V. has business units in the Netherlands and Spain, where it develops and produces advanced composite products for a variety of markets including space, aeronautics, antennas, tubulars and machine components. Airborne operates state-of-the-art engineering and production facilities and has competences covering the full range of composites engineering development including technology research, product design, process engineering, qualification, maintenance and composite repair. The company turns innovative know-how into industrialized production, through integrated Design and Build programs and is dedicated to quality, customer satisfaction and cost-efficiency. In the rapidly evolving world of composites, Airborne is committed to developing new game-changing technologies, in materials, automated manufacturing processes and product design. [http://www.airborneinternational.com/]

About White Label Space
White Label Space joined the Google Lunar X PRIZE in May 2009 and is comprised of people from many nationalities, including England, Netherlands, Australia, United States, France, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Norway and Portugal. The team’s name originates from the concept of a “White Label” product which is a generic brand, developed by one company and then sold to another brand. White Label Space sees the Google Lunar X PRIZE as the beginning of the next wave of space exploration where the common person can become a contributor and not just a spectator. [www.whitelabelspace.com] 

About the Google Lunar X PRIZE
The Google Lunar X PRIZE is an international competition organized by the X PRIZE Foundation, which previously ran the Ansari X PRIZE for suborbital space vehicles. The Google Lunar X PRIZE calls for privately-funded teams to compete in successfully launching, landing, and then traveling across the surface of the moon while sending back to Earth specified photo and other data. The PRIZE will award US$20 million to the first team to land a robot on the moon that successfully travels more than 500 meters and transmits back high definition images and video. There is a $5 million second prize, as well as $5 million in bonus prizes for challenges such as traveling long distances, photographing man-made objects on the Moon, detecting water ice or surviving a lunar night. The $20 million first-place prize is available until December 31, 2013, and then it drops in value to $15 million until December 31, 2014. [www.googlelunarxprize.org]

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Three New Members for GLXP Rover Work at Tohoku University

Three new students have just started projects at Tohoku University to assist with the development of the moon rover for our mission to win the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP). Welcome all of you to the team!

Andrea Gini - is an Information Technology professional, with extensive experience in software design and education, working as a professional consultant and as a teacher in training and certification courses. He has a master's degree in computer science, a master in scientific journalism and is currently attending the Masters of Science in Space Studies at the International Space University in France. Andrea's project will be to develop software to monitor and tele-operate the rover.


Roxanne Cote-Bigras - is a candidate for the B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering with focus on robotics and artificial intelligence at Sherbrooke University, Canada. She is now conducting research on the GLXP rover vision and positioning system. Her previous experiences include domestic robot design and implementation, as well as software development. Her fields of interest are autonomous life-support systems, guidance and navigation of mobile robotic platforms and artificial intelligence applied to human-robot interactions. She is also an active and devoted IEEE member in her local chapter.

David Jacquot-Letellier - is an undergraduate student currently studying Telecommunication Engineering, with a focus on Multimedia Technologies - involving Image and Sound Processing and Computer Science. During the course of his studies, he worked on various Signal Processing and Programming projects and was a member of his university's Robotics Association. He will soon be assigned to one of the ongoing projects within the laboratory related to planetary rover missions.

***

Engine Throttle Valve Activated on Lab Bench

Luke Weston from our open source partner Lunar Numbat has made this video showing progress on the engine throttle valve. The ball valve's position can now be set via software commands sent to the servo drive board.

The valve's first flight test will be on the AUSROC 2.5 rocket in preparation for use on our GLXP lander.

Mobility? We've Got it!

In this video our partner the Tohoku University Space Robotics Lab demonstrates the mobility of the El Dorado II rover on the test course at the 2009 IEEE ICRA Planetary Rover Challenge.

The El Dorado II rover was developed at the Space Robotics Lab under the leadership of professor Kazuya Yoshida and forms a fully functioning prototype of the mobility subsystem for the lunar rover in our Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP) mission.

The test begins with a simulated egress from a platform representing a lander. First the rover rotates on the spot (using the wheel pointing motors). Then it descends the egress ramp, which is at the same angle as on our GLXP lander.



The rest of the video shows the rover driving autonomously across the obstacle course to the far corner. Then it returns to the starting point, up the ramp once again. As it proceeds, the rover generates its own digital map of the environment.

Lunar Numbat Progress on the Throttle Valve Controller

Our open source partner Lunar Numbat is working on the throttle valve controller for our lunar lander. See this blog post for their latest progress on the motor that will control the valve. The post also includes two videos of testing of the controller.

Lunar Numbat is currently working on three projects for our Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP) mission.

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Swiss Propulsion Laboratory on National Television

This TV story about our partner the Swiss Propulsion Laboratory (SPL) was broadcast by the Swiss TV station MTW.

The story shows SPL's unique test facilities and describes their activities and plans. English subtitles are included.

Emxys Featured in El Mundo Newspaper

Our partner for electronic systems, emxys, has featured in the Spanish newspaper most popular on the web, El Mundo.

Below is the link to the article as well as a link to an image of the White Label Space rover concept appearing on the main page of the paper's "Science" section.

• Science Section Main Page
  
• Full Story

The full story link also mentions the emxys plans for a technology demonstration mission called NAOSAT. More information about that will be given in a later post.

***

Lunar Numbat Talk at Linux Conference

Jon Oxer from Lunar Numbat gave a presentation at the 2010 Linux conference of Australasia (linux.conf.au) in Wellington, New Zealand.

In his talk Jon explained how open source developers down-under can get involved in the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP) through Lunar Numbat. He gave some details of the various projects currently underway at Lunar Numbat and how they fit into the White Label Space GLXP mission. There was also an interesting question and answer session at the end of the talk.

The video of his talk is embedded below, split in two parts to fit in the youtube duration limit.

Video of Professor Yoshida Seminar at AOES

Following on from the earlier post, this is a video showing some of professor Yoshida's seminar at AOES last weekend.

Pictures from Professor Yoshida Visit to AOES

Saturday 27th February 2010, professor Kazuya Yoshida gave a seminar at the White Label Space Headquarters located at the offices of AOES Group BV in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. In his seminar he explained the technical challenges of lunar rovers and presented the upcoming plans for the White Label Space rover developments currently underway at the Space Robotics Laboratory at Tohoku University in Japan (see recent video post).

Accompanying him on the podium was Dr Andrew Barton, the chairman of the White Label Space Foundation, who provided an introduction to latest activities at the White Label Space Headquarters and the team's plans for the rest of 2010 and beyond.

After the presentation, the visitors were treated to a display of mock-ups as well as sample hardware and posters from the team's Partners.

The event was also the first chance to show a prototype of the egress ramp system that enables the Rover to safely drive from the top of the landing platform down onto the surface of the Moon. The egress ramp prototype was built by AOES engineers and was inspired by the ramps used in the successful Lunakhod Moon rover missions by the Soviet Union.

Also on display was hardware from the Wroclaw University of Technology, including a back-up antenna from the ARISS project. Two such antennas were successfully launched in 2008 attached to the Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS).

***

Visit to the Tohoku University Rover Lab

During my recent trip to Japan, I got the chance to drop by Professor Yoshida's Rover Laboratory at Tohoku University, where I recorded these video clips.



Tohoku University is located in the city of Sendai, about 2 hours by bullet train north of Toyko.

Jon Oxer to Present at linux.conf.au

Jon Oxer, member of our open source partner Lunar Numbat, will present at linux.conf.au, (the Linux Conference of Australasia) on Thursday the 21st of January in Wellington, New Zealand.

In his talk Jon will discuss Lunar Numbat's progress and also some of the technical challenges they are facing in their support of the White Label Space GLXP mission.

Jon Oxer is a member of the Lunar Numbat build team and is currently working on the throttle control system for the White Label Space lunar lander. He has written four books, and along with Hugh Blemings, and the latest called Practical Arduino was just publised. By day Jon works as Technical Director of a web application development company, and by night he's working to connect every part of his house, car, and garden to the Internet using a combination of Arduino and gaffer tape.

Emxys - New Partner for Electronic Systems

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 27, November 2009

Spanish Electronics Systems Firm Emxys Partners with White Label Space Team in $30 Million Google Lunar X PRIZE

Noordwijk – The Netherlands, White Label Space has announced its newest Partner, Emxys.

Emxys is a Spanish Aerospace company specialized in the design and manufacturing of embedded instrumentation, data acquisition and control embedded electronic systems. Emxys will contribute to White Label Space’s no-name space mission to land on the Moon, which will provide massive media exposure and sponsorship opportunities for the world’s biggest brands.

White Label Space is one of twenty one teams around the world competing in the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a competition for privately-funded teams to send a robotic mission to surface of the Moon and transmit a data package including photos and HD videos back to Earth.

Following on from its strong and innovative role in the low-cost space missions, YES and YES-2, Emxys will develop a number of key sub-systems and components for the White Label Space GLXP mission.

Francisco J. Garcia-de-Quiros, the Research & Development manager at Emxys, commented "Emxys has identified a strong potential of cooperation with the White Label Space team, which is conducting research targeted to the development of lunar landing technology. The Google X PRIZE is not just a single goal but is also an interesting tool to get funding for related technology developments, particularly those which would valuable assets to support future ESA missions to the surface of Moon, Mars or other planetary bodies."

"Through participating in the GLXP, Emxys aims to face a new stage. In this next phase the company intends to design and promote its own scientific missions. The main goal is to be able to offer a set of mission level services targeted to helping customers from scientific and industry research markets to cover the gap existing from ground technology to Space."

Under the Partnership Agreement, Emxys will also provide hardware and software in support of exciting field test campaigns in 2010 for testing of prototype technologies and systems that will be use on White Label Space's Moon mission.

Emxys is the seventh Partner to join the White Label Space team. The six existing Partners are:

• AOES Group BV, an international engineering services and consultancy based in the Netherlands with over 100 employees. AOES staff are undertaking work packages for the White Label Space team, providing specialist support for design and analysis tasks related to the structures, thermal and propulsion subsystems of the Lander and Rover.
• The Swiss Propulsion Laboratory (SPL) which is developing a low-cost engine for the landing stage of the White Label Space mission. SPL has long experience developing cheap and reliable rocket propulsion systems for numerous customers. SPL has a rocket motor test bench located on the same site as its workshop and engineering design offices, enabling rapid and extensive testing of its engine designs.
• The Space Robotics Lab at Tohoku University in Japan which is working with White Label Space to design a Moon rover for the mission. The lab is led by Professor Kazuya Yoshida and has contributed to numerous Japanese space missions including the Hayabusa asteroid sample return mission.
• JAQARsoftware.com is White Label Space's partner for orbital design and mission analysis. JAQARsoftware.com provides quality, easy-to-use intelligent software tools that allow its customers to solve complex spaceflight problems such as satellite trajectory optimization in short time on everyday desktop PCs. Clients include many of the top space companies and agencies across Europe, the USA and Asia.
• Lunar Numbat is a team of Australians and New Zealanders who are using their skills and Open Source technologies to develop new software and electronic hardware in support of the White Label Space mission.
• Wroclaw University of Technology's Institute of Telecommunications, Teleinformatics and Acoustics which has extensive experience developing aerospace communications equipment including the Amateur Radio for the ISS (ARISS) antenna which is now flying on the European Columbus Module of the International Space Station.

About Emxys

Emxys is a designer and manufacturer of instrumentation and control embedded electronic systems for science and industry markets. Besides being very active in the space sector, Emxys also has a strong track record in other cutting edge scientific fields including biomedical engineering, photonics, high energy physics, telecommunications. Emxys is pronounced as “m-sys” [www.emxys.com]

About White Label Space

White Label Space joined the Google Lunar X PRIZE in May 2009 and is comprised of people from many nationalities, including England, Netherlands, Australia, United States, France, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Norway and Portugal. The team’s name originates from the concept of a “White Label” product which is a generic brand, developed by one company and then sold to another brand. White Label Space sees the Google Lunar X PRIZE as the beginning of the next wave of space exploration where the common person can become a contributor and not just a spectator. [www.whitelabelspace.com]

About the Google Lunar X PRIZE

The Google Lunar X PRIZE is an international competition organized by the X PRIZE Foundation which previously ran the Ansari X PRIZE for suborbital space vehicles. The Google Lunar X PRZIE calls for privately-funded teams to compete in successfully launching, landing, and then traveling across the surface of the moon while sending back to Earth specified photo and other data. The PRIZE will award US$20 million to the first team to land a robot on the moon that successfully travels more than 500 meters and transmits back high definition images and video. There is a $5 million second prize, as well as $5 million in bonus prizes for challenges such as traveling long distances, photographic images of man-made objects on the Moon, detecting water ice or surviving a lunar night. The $20 million first-place prize is available until December 31, 2012, and then it drops in value to $15 million until December 31, 2014. [www.googlelunarxprize.org]

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How to Build a Radar Altimeter

If you are interested in how to build a low-cost radar altimeter for a lunar lander, then keep an eye on the work being done by Lee Begg from Lunar Numbat, our open design partner down under.

Lee's work is an open design, published for all to see on the Lunar Numbat Twiki site. He also started some radar design calculations on the github site. The calculations are in the form of python scripts and Lee plans to implement these in a breadboard demo of the radar altimeter, probably based on a Blackfin processor. Below is a block diagram of the concept.


Lee Begg lives in Wellington, New Zealand, and in his day job works as a software developer for Harmonic. He and has a Masters degree from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch in Computer Science and Software Engineering.

Interview by SpaceFellowship.com

What's the difference between Investors, Partners and Sponsors?

Read our answer to that question and also learn about other aspects of our team's business plan in this interview by SpaceFellowship.com.

4CRB Radio Interview

This interview with Marco Ostini from our partner Lunar Numbat was played on the Australian radio station 4CRB on the 5'th of August 2009.

The interview is in two parts;

• Part 1 - Spin-Offs from Space Technology
• Part 2 - Australia's Space Sector