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Spacebit Technologies Ltd.
Company typePrivate company
Industry
Founded2014; 10 years ago (2014)
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Products
Websitespacebit.com Edit this at Wikidata

Spacebit is a British company that is developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions. The company is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.[1][2]

The first launch of one of its spacecraft, was originally scheduled for July 2021 on a Vulcan Centaur rocket within the Peregrine lunar lander, but was delayed to 8 January 2024.[3]

History

The company was founded in 2014 in London, UK. The private space startup was funded with the proceeds from the sale of MoneXy to Fidobank by Ukrainian-British tech entrepreneur Pavlo Tanasyuk. In seven years, Tanasyuk has raised about $10 million in angel investment from several private investors. As of 2024, company has offices in Ukraine, the UK, the US, Japan, and Luxembourg, employs 25 people.[4]

In September 2019, the company signed an agreement to deliver lunar rover Asagumo on upcoming mission in 2023, since the beginning was scheduled for 2021.[5]

The Asagumo rover weights 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lb) and uses four legs to essentially "crawl" over the moon's surface to gather data and potentially explore lunar lava tubes.[6][7]

In December 2019, the Asagumo lunar rover, which means "morning clouds" in Japanese, was presented in Japan.[8] Spacebit's Asagumo rover has legs that have to withstand not only lunar conditions, but also vibrations of the rocket during the launch. Initially it was designed to work with SpaceX Falcon9 and was tested accordingly. ULA Vulcan has different vibration profile and the company did not have time to requalify and change all the systems for the updated rocket. Also, due to the nature of the first flight Astrobotic had limited weight capacity on the first flight. As a result Spacebit decided to concentrate on material science during the first flight, the payload that the company are sending consist of different materials that include metals, different coating materials and paints. Testing of those materials during the flight and lunar conditions that would allow to progress to higher TLR (flight readiness level) for the robot and get ready for the next flight of Asagumo. The Spacebit payload also includes laser edged Union Jack and Ukrainian memorable plate that includes map of Ukraine and heart-shaped flag is launched in solidarity with Ukrainian people.[9]

In September 2021, the company in collaboration with the Ukrainian government had agreed plans to establish a space flight control center in Ukraine.[10][11][12]

On August 2023, Spacebit revealed the partnership with Ukrainian company "TitanEra" to send Ukrainian map and flag to the Moon.[13] According to the Hromadske, in the same month, the lunar mission was converted to british-ukrainian due to part of hardwares (cameras and radiation sensors) will be History manufactured by Ukrainian engineers and tested by the company together with the "KB Pivdenne" and the "Korolyov Meridian Research and Production Enterprise.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Экономика космоса. Зачем украинец Павел Танасюк отправляет робота-паука в миссию на Луну — Forbes.ua". forbes.ua (in Russian). 2021-05-26. Archived from the original on 2023-10-31. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  2. ^ Knapton, Sarah (2021-01-01). "Britain to send a space spider to the Moon". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 2023-10-31. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  3. ^ Davidpublished, Leonard (2024-01-04). "For Astrobotic, big risk (and bigger reward) ride on private Peregrine moon lander's Jan. 8 launch". Space.com. Archived from the original on 2024-01-04. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  4. ^ "Україна летить на Місяць: хто стоїть за місією на супутник Землі і як вона буде реалізована | Економічна правда". web.archive.org. 2021-08-31. Archived from the original on 2021-08-31. Retrieved 2024-01-08.((cite web)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ "UK firm to send crawling spider-like rover to the moon". The Engineer. 2021-12-01. Archived from the original on 2024-01-05. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  6. ^ Hainey, Fionnula (2019-10-10). "This tiny spider-like robot is being sent to space in UK's first moon expedition". Manchester Evening News. Archived from the original on 2024-01-05. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  7. ^ Hainey, Fionnula (2019-10-10). "This tiny spider-like robot is being sent to space in UK's first moon expedition". Manchester Evening News. Archived from the original on 2024-01-05. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  8. ^ Kravchenko, Kristy (2021-10-27). "British-Ukrainian mission to the Moon • Ukraїner". Ukraїner. Archived from the original on 2024-01-05. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  9. ^ "Британська компанія, заснована українцем, здійснить першу українську місію на Місяць". Економічна правда (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2024-01-05. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  10. ^ "Засновник космічної компанії відправить на Місяць прапор України". Українська правда _Життя. Archived from the original on 2024-01-08. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  11. ^ "Британська компанія Spacebit планує створити в Україні центр управління космічними польотами". web.archive.org. 2021-09-03. Archived from the original on 2021-09-03. Retrieved 2024-01-05.((cite web)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  12. ^ Свобода, Радіо (2021-09-03). "Британська компанія Spacebit планує створити в Україні центр управління космічними польотами". Радіо Свобода (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2021-09-03. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  13. ^ "Український прапор вперше з'явиться на Місяці". bit.ua Медіа про життя і технології в ньому. 2021-09-19. Archived from the original on 2024-01-05. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  14. ^ "Перша українська місія на Місяць, приватний космос та сучасні Колумби: інтерв'ю із засновником Spacebit Павлом Танасюком". hromadske.ua (in Ukrainian). 2021-09-24. Archived from the original on 2024-01-05. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
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