Monaco and Venturi ready to set foot on the Moon… before Mars?
More than fifty years after the Apollo 11 program, which allowed Neil Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin to soil the lunar surface for the first time, NASA is working hard on a program to return to the Moon. Codename: Artemis Missions (read below). Objective: to carry out a campaign of manned exploration missions on the Moon and then, one day, on Mars. With this in mind, calls for tenders have been launched to enlist the services of commercial companies at the forefront of new technologies.
At the end of last week, the American aerospace start-up Venturi Astrolab, based in Los Angeles, presented its new unpressurized rover, “modular and interplanetary”, baptized FLEX (Flexible Logistics and Exploration) and capable of carrying two astronauts as well as collecting, transporting and depositing various loads.
An engine that should enable Venturi Astrolab to become “UPS, FedEx and Uber of the Moon”, according to son pd-g. Jaret Matthews, quoted in the specialized American magazine The edge. “For humanity to truly live and function sustainably outside of Earth, there must be an efficient and economical transportation network on the Moon”also specifies Astrolab via press release.
Monaco at heart
dunes task force international
Because reaching the Moon is no longer a headache in 2022. Today, the challenge is to settle there and optimize the frequency of its refueling and handling on site. “Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are solving the long-distance transport problem, and we want to solve the local transport problem”explains Jaret Matthews, recalling that “Astronauts’ time is the world’s most valuable resource and their safety is a primary concern”. To win NASA’s call for tenders, Venturi Astrolab decided to build a task force International. This is where Monaco and the Venturi group come in.
Gildo Pastor’s company has been innovating in the field of electric vehicles on Earth for twenty years. After breaking world speed records with its cars (VBB-3) and electric motorcycles (Voxan Wattman piloted by Max Biaggi), Venturi has recently equipped the Princess Elisabeth polar station with its Antarctic shuttle. A revolutionary electric machine for its autonomy – in the process of being marketed – and highly resistant to polar cold. So many launching pads for the pioneer Gildo Pastor who confided to Monaco-Morning in December 2019 that, as a child, he was already building Lego cars cut for space.
Electric batteries developed by Venturi
In early March, the Consul General of Monaco in New York rightly mentioned in our columns his “strategic partnership” with Venturi Astrolab, a 100% American company in which he does not own any shares. Venturi Astrolab hopes to supply its vehicles to NASA, where engineers from the Venturi group will develop a whole series of equipment in Monaco. “Functional batteries and materials resistant to extreme negative temperatures, solar panels, deformable wheels, electrical vehicle control systems and the integration of human factors for planetary rovers”we enumerate at Venturi.
A third entity transferred by Gildo Pastor and deployed in Switzerland, Venturi Lab, having more precisely the task of thinking about tires. Not for nothing that its Swiss co-founder, Dr. Milan Fedurco, is a former Michelin.
“People will live
longer on the moon”
While waiting for NASA to choose its future partners, Venturi Astrolab is carrying out tests of its rover in the Californian desert. At the controls, a former astronaut, Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to have commanded the International Space Station (2012-2013).
“As we move from the Apollo era, which was driven by pure exploration, to today, where people are going to live longer on the Moon, the equipment has to change.now comments the Astrolab advisory board member. When we settle somewhere, we not only need to transport people from one place to another, but also to move equipment, cargo, survival equipment, etc. And it all depends on mobility. “
Venturi Astrolab’s slogan? “More about getting high, more about looking away. »