Honda, Astrobotic Partner to Power Moon Through Lunar Night
▼ Summary
– Honda and Astrobotic are partnering to study integrating Honda’s regenerative fuel cell system into Astrobotic’s LunaGrid for lunar power.
– The collaboration will evaluate system scalability and conduct illumination studies at potential lunar south pole landing sites.
– Honda’s regenerative fuel cell addresses the lunar night challenge by storing solar power as hydrogen and converting it back to electricity, producing only water as a byproduct.
– Astrobotic’s Vertical Solar Array Technology is designed to track the sun for maximum energy capture and can generate up to 10 kilowatts, with an XL version planned for five times more power.
– This partnership represents Honda’s first public agreement to apply its fuel cell technology in space and supports Japan’s broader space ambitions aligned with the Artemis program.
A new partnership between automotive leader Honda and lunar technology firm Astrobotic aims to solve one of the biggest hurdles in Moon exploration: generating continuous power through the long, frigid lunar night. The companies will jointly investigate integrating Honda’s regenerative fuel cell system into Astrobotic’s LunaGrid, a scalable solar power network designed for the lunar surface.
Their collaboration involves conducting illumination studies at potential landing sites near the lunar south pole. They will also evaluate how well the systems integrate in terms of hardware, software, and overall scalability. The core challenge they are tackling is the fourteen-day lunar night, a period when temperatures can plummet to a bone-chilling -424 degrees Fahrenheit and solar panels become useless.
Honda’s innovative technology offers a potential solution. During the sunlit lunar day, the system uses solar power to create hydrogen, which is stored for later use. When darkness falls, the regenerative fuel cell converts the hydrogen back into electricity, producing water as its only byproduct. This water is then fed back into the system, creating a closed-loop cycle that continuously regenerates its own fuel supply.
Astrobotic contributes its Vertical Solar Array Technology, or VSAT, to the equation. These arrays are engineered to track the Sun across the sky, maximizing energy capture. The standard version is planned to have a capacity of up to 10 kilowatts, with a more powerful XL model in development that could generate five times that amount. In the proposed system, VSAT would gather solar energy during the day to run the water electrolysis process, while Honda’s fuel cell would provide electricity throughout the night.
This initiative represents a significant strategic move for Honda, marking its first publicly announced agreement to deploy its fuel cell technology in space. The company has invested heavily in fuel cell research and development for years, primarily for automotive applications. For Astrobotic, this partnership builds on its broader mission to develop a lunar economy, which includes power and mobility systems. The company, founded in 2007, is also known for its Peregrine lunar lander mission earlier this year.
The project aligns with wider international space ambitions, particularly those of Japan, a founding member of the Artemis Accords. The lunar south pole is a primary target for NASA’s Artemis program due to its areas of near-permanent sunlight and suspected deposits of water ice. A reliable power solution like the one being studied by Honda and Astrobotic is considered essential for enabling longer-duration missions and establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon.
(Source: TechCrunch)