UK start-up company Spacebit and Ukraine's Yuzhnoye Design Buro have unveiled a new Lunar Lander-Hopper prototype at the Dubai Airshow, while also announcing the UAE as the official testing location for a Spider Moon Rover—"the smallest robotic Moon rover in the world with legs, not wheels."
The lander will be developed over the next two to three years with engine testing starting earlier, according to Spacebit, while the Spider Moon Rover is in development and is due to be launched formally in Q2 2020. The precise testing location in Abu Dhabi has yet to be identified.
Yuzhnoye general director Alexander Degtyarev commented, "We are pleased to be working with Spacebit as part of our new 'Powered by Yuzhnoye' initiative which lets new space companies gain critical space flight expertise much faster by tapping into our existing rich technology base while developing new technologies together."
The lunar-hopper concept is on display at the Yuzhnoye Design Buro stand (1510) along with a Spider Moon Rover 3D model.
"Our Lunar Lander is different as it incorporates the ability to 'hop' from one landing site to another," said Spacebit founder and CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk. It will be designed to deliver "150 kg or more of payload" to one landing point or "50 kg or more" to up to three remote landing points on the lunar surface within a distance of up to 20 km, said Spacebit.