Rocket Lab Selected to Build Solar Panels for NASA’s CADRE Mobile Robot Program
14 October 2022 - 11:30PM
Business Wire
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the
Company”), a leading launch and space systems company, today
announced it has been selected by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) to supply solar panels that will power NASA’s shoe-box-sized
mobile robots as part of the Cooperative Autonomous Distributed
Robotic Explorers (CADRE) program.
The solar panels will use Rocket Lab’s inverted metamorphic
multi-junction (IMM) solar cells that are more efficient and
lighter weight than standard multi-junction space solar cells and
provide the exact capabilities needed for the program. The IMM
cells were developed by SolAero Technologies Inc, a leading space
solar power company acquired by Rocket Lab in January 2022.
IMM solar cells are a superior type of space-grade solar cell,
providing best-in-class efficiency with 40% lower mass than typical
space-grade solar cells. IMM is also powering General Atomics’
GAzelle spacecraft, which Rocket Lab launched as part of its 31st
Electron mission earlier this month.
The CADRE robots are the next generation of NASA’s Autonomous
Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robots (A-PUFFER) technology. NASA’s
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is designing the CADRE robots to be able
to explore as a group to collect data in the hardest-to-reach
places on the Moon, Mars and beyond.
“We’re incredibly proud to be supporting innovative new means of
space exploration,” said Brad Clevenger, Rocket Lab’s Vice
President of Space Systems. “The CADRE program could help map
unexplored regions on the Moon and access hard to reach parts of
Mars, expanding our understanding of distant planets and Moon.”
CADRE is targeted to fly as a technology demonstration on a
commercial robotic lander within the next five years through NASA’s
Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative.
+ ABOUT Rocket Lab Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab is an end-to-end
space company with an established track record of mission success.
We deliver reliable launch services, satellite manufacture,
spacecraft components, and on-orbit management solutions that make
it faster, easier and more affordable to access space.
Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Rocket Lab designs and
manufactures the Electron small orbital launch vehicle, the Photon
satellite platform and the Company is developing the large Neutron
launch vehicle for constellation deployment. Since its first
orbital launch in January 2018, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch
vehicle has become the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket
annually and has delivered 151 satellites to orbit for private and
public sector organizations, enabling operations in national
security, scientific research, space debris mitigation, Earth
observation, climate monitoring, and communications. Rocket Lab’s
Photon spacecraft platform has been selected to support NASA
missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as the first private
commercial mission to Venus. Rocket Lab has three launch pads at
two launch sites, including two launch pads at a private orbital
launch site located in New Zealand and a second launch site in
Virginia, USA which is expected to become operational in 2022. To
learn more, visit www.rocketlabusa.com.
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+ Rocket Lab Media Michael Atchue m.atchue@rocketlabusa.com +1
714-613-2072
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