Robotic Arm For Moon Missions

The European Space Agency’s project AGRONAUT is developing a multi-purpose Moon lander intended to support a broad range of missions, like supplies of cargo for bases, researches, rovers and power stations. The main element of the lander is a robotic manipulator to carry objects to the Moon surface engineered by a Polish space robotics company PIAP Space in the project Breadboarding of Robotic Manipulator for Lunar Missions (MANUS). One of the main tasks of any mission will be ensuring safe unloading of the lander onto the surface. The robotic arm designed by PIAP Space will enable ESA to perform safely multiple tasks, such as crew missions, transporting and unloading of goods and unmanned exploration of the Moon. The manipulator is composed of modules that can be configurated depending on the mission requirements. PIAP Space’s partners in Manus project are Astronika from Poland, GMV and Leonardo. This is not the first success of PIAP Space, which has been developing robotic solutions for space industry since its establishment in 2017. In 2022 it engineered prototype of chassis for Sample Fetch Rover (SFR) in joint NASA and ESA Mars missions project for samples collection and transport to return rockets for delivery to Earth. PIAP Space is also the main engineer of advanced TITAN robotic arm for ESA’s precise orbital operations.