Stone Aerospace lands $3.2M NASA grant for laser-powered Moon-cave drone
What's the deal? Stone AerospaceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has won US$2.07M grant from NASADealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s Innovative Advanced Concepts program for LUX, a drone built to explore lunar caves. The tethered flying vehicle is designed to hover down into steep pits and lava tubes that rovers cannot reach.
How it works: LUX draws power from a surface rover through a laser-powered power-over-fiber tether. That same line carries a high-speed connection, sending video, maps, and sensor data back to the rover and on to Earth, while adding stability in flight.
What's the endgame? Lunar caves could shield astronauts from radiation, micrometeorites, and extreme temperature swings. They may also preserve water ice and cleaner geological records. One target is a pit in Mare Tranquillitatis, about 250 miles from the Apollo 11 site, thought to be roughly 100 meters deep and possibly opening into a lava tube.
What could go wrong? LUX must fly in total darkness without GPS while keeping communications live and preventing a delicate fiber tether from failing in dust and extreme cold.
Why now? The field is heating up. The European Space AgencyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is exploring similar pit robots, including a concept called Daedalus.
The signal: At $3.2 million, the grant sits in the top 6% of all US robotics grants on record, a sign of how seriously agencies are backing early-stage hardware for missions rovers cannot attempt.
Read more: Softonic
Image credit: European Space Agency
