First-ever US Rover to be Sent to the Moon by 2023 from Pittsburgh

NASA has awarded a Pittsburgh-based technology company, Astrobotic Technology, a $200 million contract to build and send the first-ever US rover to the Moon by 2023.

The ‘Griffin’ mission will deliver a Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the  pole of the Moon to explore the permanently shadowed areas believed to be cold traps for water.

The rover has been programmed to drill down into the polar surface to look for and extract water ice which could be used to manufacture oxygen and rocket fuel.

Home to leading technology brands, such as Uber and ZOOM, Pittsburgh has been a leader in robotics innovation since 1979 when the Robotics Institute was founded at Carnegie Mellon University.

Nicknamed ‘Robotics Row’, a three-mile stretch of Pittsburgh neighbourhoods near Downtown, has seen an influx of robotics and

AI companies take over repurposed warehouses and industrial spaces.

These include Argo AI, Bosh, Disney Research and Delphi. 

Pittsburgh engineers were also instrumental in the early testing of Uber’s driverless cars.

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