Voyager lander finishes harsh ground tests for moon run

A robotic lander built for a commercial moon mission has finished its final round of ground tests.

Voyager Technologies' Griffin-1 completed the trials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Engineers subjected the spacecraft to extreme temperatures, intense vibration, and loud acoustic conditions. These tests simulate the physical stresses the vehicle will endure from launch to landing on the lunar surface.

JPL recently confirmed the lander passed the full series of environmental checks. An image from August 31 shows the spacecraft inside the laboratory's 25-foot-wide space simulator. Charles Whetsel, manager of the Exploration Systems Development Office at JPL, noted the facility has tested robotic explorers since the Ranger program of the mid-1960s. "We're proud to provide our expertise and facilities to support this new phase of commercial lunar exploration," he said.

Griffin-1 will fly under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The vehicle is designed to carry more than 1,100 pounds of cargo to a site near the lunar south pole. The payload includes science experiments and new technologies for surface testing. One key component is Astrolab's FLIP rover, which will explore the terrain while carrying a supercomputer.

The mission is scheduled to launch later this year. The data collected by the lander will support NASA's plan to build a crewed moon base in the same region within the next five years.