HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - One year after winning second place in NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, members of the small business Starpath visited NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of their prize opportunity to test their upgraded lunar regolith excavation and transportation rover in the center’s 20-foot thermal vacuum chamber, Savannah Bullard writes for NASA. Continue reading original article.
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30 September 2025 - Starpath, a Hawthorne, Calif.-based startup, tested its upgraded lunar regolith excavation and transportation rover at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The demonstration took place in the V-20 Thermal Vacuum Chamber, which can replicate harsh lunar conditions by adjusting vacuum, temperature, humidity, and pressure.
The four-wheeled rover is designed for excavation and hauling in extreme environments like the lunar South Pole. It features a dual drum barrel that extends from the body, functioning like crab claws to scrape into tough regolith while conserving battery life. NASA staff prepared a concrete testbed with rocky terrain inside the chamber to evaluate the robot’s excavation and mobility performance.
Starpath’s work builds on its second-place finish in NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, a competition to develop robotic systems capable of extracting and transporting lunar regolith, particularly ice-rich soil. By advancing this rover technology, Starpath aims to support future Artemis missions, which plan to use lunar ice as a resource for drinking water and rocket fuel.
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Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics
