When Carnegie Mellon University students become the first to pilot a rover on the moon next month, a homegrown astronaut will be among the NASA ranks watching.
Pittsburgh native Warren "Woody" Hoburg returned to Earth in September from a 186-day trip to the International Space Station, where he helped increase power input from the station’s solar arrays. He visited CMU's mission control center Saturday to learn more about the students and systems that will convene next month to remotely pilot the Iris rover, much like a full-fledged NASA command unit.
"This is certainly real hardware. It's real operations. And beyond that, this hardware is going to the moon in a month. How amazing is that?" he said.
Mr. Hoburg will kick off Sunday's Steelers game with a towel twirl, using the same Terrible Towel he took as a memento to space. He visited CMU with James Kenyon, an alum who is director of NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
Both took their time asking students targeted questions about their software and hardware designs for moon rovers that will soon be put to the test.
“They know what they're doing,” Mr. Kenyon said. “And frankly, they're spending a lot of their spare time doing this, which just shows a lot of passion.”
Iris is set to launch aboard the Peregrine lander, made by Pittsburgh's Astrobotic, on Christmas Eve. No private company has successfully landed on the moon before.
Gov. Josh Shapiro visited Astrobotic last month to announce $4 million in state funding to help the startup double its workforce and renovate an additional office building on the North Shore.
Mr. Kenyon's work at the Glenn Center will involve power systems similar to Astrobotic's development of a LunaGrid, eventually enabling astronauts to live on the moon.
Red Whittaker, director of CMU's Field Robotics Center and an Astrobotic co-founder, took the opportunity Saturday to pitch Mr. Kenyon on his "solar highway" concept, which could allow for continuous electric power on the moon.
When he was appointed to Glenn, Mr. Kenyon described the space economy as a way to fuel new industries and technologies with job growth in Ohio and beyond, a goal shared by the Pittsburgh-based Keystone Space Collaborative.
Iris student leaders told NASA's team about the sacrifices they've made to remain dedicated to the project through delays and the matriculation of their peers.
Raewyn Duvall put her Ph.D. studies on hold to serve as Iris' "Rover Executive Director," or RED, in honor of her adviser. Nikolai Stefanov, Iris' mission control lead, has given up weekends and breaks to do intensive 8- and 36-hour simulations.
"We have an incredibly passionate, driven team," he said.
A key part of their work has been keeping control seats filled. Second year master’s student Atharva Pusalkar stepped into a control chair just last month to begin training because they needed someone with electrical expertise.
"I hope it all goes well," he said.
Ms. Duvall said she and her co-lead will get "heartbeat" updates every five minutes once Iris is in the air, but the rover won't power on until shortly before the landing, about 30 days after the Cape Canaveral launch. She gave Mr. Hoburg a patch for the Iris mission that he promised to wear on the driving day.
In turn, he gave her a patch from his own mission, Expedition 69, to wear for good luck.
Evan Robinson-Johnson: ejohnson@post-gazette.com
First Published: December 3, 2023, 1:23 a.m.
Updated: December 3, 2023, 1:58 a.m.