NASA has awarded Astrobotic a Small Business Innovation Research Phase II contract to advance development of its Extra Large Vertical Solar Array Technology (VSAT-XL). Towering at over 30 m tall with the ability to generate 50 kW of power from its 20-meter-long solar panels, VSAT-XL would be the largest planned lunar power infrastructure to date to meet the growing power requirements of planned lunar missions.

“As lunar surface missions continue to grow in scale and scope, the ability to generate, store, and distribute large amounts of power will become critical,” says John Thornton, Astrobotic’s CEO. “A system like VSAT-XL has the power capacity to support in-situ resource utilization infrastructure and long-term habitats, which could unlock a whole new class of science and exploration missions that would not be possible before.”

Expanding on the design of Astrobotic’s existing 10 kW VSAT system, the VSAT-XL takes the concept to a significantly larger scale. It is a solar-powered system that is deployable, self-leveling, and capable of sun tracking for optimal energy capture. It generates power with a set of deployable/retractable solar array blankets raised over 10 meters above the lunar terrain, ideal for placement at the lunar south pole, where the sun circles the horizon at a low angle all year round. Designed to mount on top of Astrobotic’s Griffin lander, VSAT-XL’s larger solar panel surface area provides 50 kW of solar power to lunar surface assets. Like its smaller cousin, VSAT-XL will be a component of Astrobotic’s LunaGrid system, the company’s power generation and distribution service for long-term human and robotic operations at the lunar south pole. This latest award comes on the heels of a successful VSAT-XL engineering study for NASA, and with this new award, Astrobotic will manufacture a prototype to test the solar array deployment system.

“Phase one was focused on finding a stable and practical design for such a colossal system and packaging it all to fit on a current-generation launch vehicle,” says Lauren Whitehouse, senior structures engineer for Astrobotic. “Now we have the opportunity to mature VSAT-XL’s design and build and test a functional prototype. While VSAT-XL is designed to enhance operations on the Moon, its components are versatile: they can be reconfigured for use on other planetary surfaces, like Mars, or linked together to form Astrobotic’s LunaGrid power system.”

LunaGrid is designed to supply sustained lunar surface power for a range of missions lasting months to years at a time, including deliveries from commercial landers, large-scale science expeditions prioritized by the broader scientific community, privately developed payloads, and long-duration human exploration efforts requiring significant and reliable energy infrastructure.

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