Planetary Transportation Systems

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Planetary Transportation Systems
legal form GmbH
founding 2010
Seat Berlin , Germany
management André Radloff, Jesse Eyer
Number of employees 60
Branch Space travel
Website pts.space

The Planetary Transportation Systems GmbH ( PTS ) is a in Berlin -based aerospace company. She is developing the unmanned lunar landing device "Alina" and is aiming for several moon landings with it.

Planetary Transportation Systems has been continuing the business of the insolvent PTScientists GmbH since 2019 , which emerged from the Part Time Scientists team of participants in the Google Lunar X-Prize lunar landing competition, founded in 2009 . In 2017 the Part Time Scientists left the competition and presented a concept for a commercial moon landing mission. Since then, attempts have been made to market the transport capacity of this flight. In addition, the company is involved with Alina in a consortium that is developing a proposal for a scientific lunar mission in the mid-2020s on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA).

history

In June 2009 the “Part-Time Scientists” team was founded to take part in the Google Lunar X-Prize (GLXP). At this point ten other teams had already registered. In the following year, Part-Time Scientists GmbH was founded. At the beginning of 2015, the team was able to achieve two victories in the “Mobility” and “Vision” categories and a total of 750,000 US dollars in prize money at the so-called “Milestone Prizes” of the GLXP .

On June 23, 2015, Audi was announced as the main sponsor and cooperation partner at the Advertising Festival in Cannes . As a result of this cooperation in 2016 was North American International Auto Show in Detroit, a Rover - prototype named Audi quattro lunar presented.

On November 29, 2016, the signing of a launch contract with Spaceflight Industries for the flight to the moon was announced. Since the deadline for the Google Lunar X-Prize was before the booked start date, the Part Time Scientists were eliminated from the competition in 2017.

As part of CeBIT 2017, another sponsorship and cooperation with Vodafone was announced, in which LTE technology was to be used for communication between the landing module and two “Audi lunar quattro” on the moon. The Part Time Scientists' business model now envisaged organizing their own moon flights and marketing the payload capacity to interested people, organizations or companies. They also wanted to generate income from merchandising . A first moon landing should initially take place in 2019, but has been postponed several times.

In addition to these own plans, the company - now trading as "PTScientists" - has been designing a possible moon mission for scientific purposes in the mid-2020s on behalf of ESA and together with the rocket operator ArianespaceTemplate: future / in 5 years . An Ariane 64 rocket and the Alina lander would be used to bring exploration equipment for extracting water from the lunar rock regolith onto the lunar surface.

After the company moved into larger offices and workshops and hired dozens of other employees, it ran into financial difficulties and had to file for bankruptcy on July 5, 2019 . Two months later, the Berlin logistics service provider Zeitfracht was won as a new investor. He took over the operation of the insolvent PTScientists GmbH with 60 of the former 70 employees and continues it under the new company Planetary Transportation Systems GmbH . Both the mission study with Arianespace and the development of the lander will continue. After successful restructuring, the management team from Planetary Transportation Systems (PTS) took over full responsibility for the company again in January 2020 as part of a management buyout from the Zeitfracht group of companies.

Equipment

Countries

Alina (Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module) at Cebit 2017

A first prototype Lander named Jules Verne R0  - named after the French writer and science fiction pioneer Jules Verne  - was presented in December 2010. On December 14, 2014, PTScientists announced the recruitment of the Space Team student space team from the Vienna University of Technology for the further development of the lander. A 1: 1 scale prototype was built.

In 2016, a model of the planned landing module called Alina (Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module) was presented at the International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) in Berlin . A carrier system weighing around 330 kg was planned, which should land independently with the help of seven cameras. Later the planned lander was enlarged; Since then, the take-off mass (including fuel) has been mentioned as 4000 kg, and the payload up to 300 kg.

The payloads transported together with the lander should be able to both be dropped and remain on the lander. CubeSats should also be able to be deployed in a moon orbit before landing.

rover

Prototypes

Rover Asimov Jr. R3 during driving tests at the end of April 2012 on the slag dump of the Erzberg

By 2016, the part-time scientists were five by or on behalf Rover - prototypes designed and built:

  • Asimov Jr. R1 - presented at the Chaos Communication Congress 26C3 in Berlin at the end of December 2009
  • Asimov Jr. R2 - presented at the Berlin International Aerospace Exhibition 2010
  • Asimov Jr. R0 - presented at the Chaos Communication Congress 27C3 in Berlin at the end of December 2010
  • Asimov Jr. R3 - presented at the Chaos Communication Congress 28C3 in Berlin at the end of December 2011
  • Audi lunar quattro - MockUp, presented at the Advertising Festival in Cannes in June 2015
  • Audi lunar quattro prototype, Detroit Motor Show in January 2016

The first rovers were named after the well-known Russian-American biochemist and science fiction writer Isaac Asimov . Prototypes that are not suitable for space had - at least initially - the suffix "Jr."; In addition, the prototypes were numbered in ascending order according to revision. The prototype R0, however, is a mock-up for illustrative purposes.

Audi lunar quattro

Audi lunar quattro

The Audi lunar quattro was first presented as a mock-up at the Advertising Festival in Cannes in June 2015. According to the two companies, the aim of supporting Audi was not only monetary sponsorship, but Audi also contributed technologies for the rover.

At the beginning of 2016, a drivable prototype was presented at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which was developed in cooperation with Audi. A large part of this rover was made of aluminum and was produced with a 3D printer , so that the total weight of the rover was less than 30 kilograms.

payload

The rover Audi lunar quattro should be able to carry a payload of 5 kg. For this purpose, several payload options in the standardized CubeSat format should be available, which one tries to market to scientific institutions and commercial interested parties. Two payload units per rover are designed as so-called “drop containers”; these should be "dropped" by the moon rover on the lunar surface. A total of three units should remain in the rovers.

"Mission to the Moon"

Mission to the Moon
Mission goal Moon landing
Client Planetary Transportation Systems
Launcher Falcon 9
Course of the mission
Start date Scheduled for 2022 at the earliest

The "Mission to the Moon" is a concept for a first moon flight with the lander "Alina". It was originally designed as part of the Google Lunar X-Prize competition and later turned into a plan for a commercial flight to the moon. The Alina lander is to be transported on a launcher into low earth orbit and from there take a course in the direction of the moon before it swings into lunar orbit and lands . The aim is to carry out the first "European moon landing mission".

Launcher

For a long time, a Russian / Ukrainian Dnepr was discussed as a launch vehicle . Alternatively, it was possible to switch to the Indian PSLV rocket or the Falcon 9 from the American company SpaceX . On November 29, 2016, the signing of a launch contract with Spaceflight Industries for the flight with a Falcon 9 to the moon was announced. A start has been promised for the first time in 2019. After several postponements and the insolvency in July 2019 and later takeover by Zeitfracht , the flight is not planned for 2022 at the earliest.

Planning for the Lunar X-Prize

Landing site of Apollo 17 and the surrounding area

For the X-Prize competition, it was planned that the lander would transport two rovers to the surface of the moon in order to explore them and transmit images and videos to earth. The Taurus-Littrow valley was planned as the landing site to investigate the landing site of the Apollo 17 mission and in particular the lunar roving vehicle . According to the team, it would have been interesting to study the influence of several decades of space conditions on the materials used by the Apollo rover. The investigations should be carried out by means of spectral analysis by a camera attached to the "head" of the rover.

In 2015 Part-Time Scientists announced that the Canadian company Gedex wanted to send its Gravimeter HD-AGG (High-Definition Airborne Gravity Gradiometer) to the moon. The aim was to obtain information about certain gravity anomalies , which were first measured by the lunar orbiter satellites and later during the Apollo 17 mission. One of the "drop container" in a Rover for the Lunar Plant Growth Experiment of the Ames Research Center reserved NASA.

In 2017, Vodafone was won as the second main sponsor. The collaboration was based on a technical concept that provides for the use of LTE cellular technology for communication between the rovers and the lander.

Cooperation with Wikimedia

In April 2016 the Wikimedia Foundation published an article in its “Meta-Wiki” about a project called “Wikipedia to the Moon”, which was planned in collaboration with the Part Time Scientists. The aim of the project proposal was to bring a storage medium with parts of Wikipedia in the form of a time capsule to the moon and thus to secure today's knowledge for future generations. Together with the Wikimedia community, it should be found out which data should be transferred to the storage medium and how a kind of instruction for reading this data can be designed. After the article was published, it was translated into 50 languages ​​within 24 hours.

Companies

Branches

Planetary Transportation Systems is headquartered in Berlin. The predecessor company PTScientists also opened a branch in the USA at the beginning of 2018. The opening of a branch in Austria, specifically in Salzburg , was planned for the same year.

partner

According to its own information, the company works with the following organizations:

" Technology partner " (main sponsors)

Scientific and academic mission partners

Suppliers and service providers

  • Riedel
  • Scisys
  • Laserforce
  • Ventrex

Business data

As of December 31, 2017, the balance sheet of PTScientists GmbH showed subscribed capital of 33,600 euros, retained earnings of around 390,000 euros and a balance sheet loss of 1.96 million euros. In the period from January 2018 to March 2019, the subscribed capital was increased by around 24,000 euros.

Awards

2015:

  • Google Lunar X-Prize "Milestone Prize" in the "Imaging" category ($ 500,000 prize money)

2016:

  • Cannes Lions - Shortlist entry in the outdoor category with Mission to the Moon by thjnk
  • Cannes Lions - Bronze Lion in the Promo And Activation category with Mission to the Moon by thjnk

Others

Web links

Commons : Planetary Transportation Systems  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Founded in 2010 as Part Time Scientists GmbH (HRB 125634 B, Charlottenburg District Court, Berlin); from 2019 after an asset deal continued as Planetary Transportation Systems GmbH, Managing Director Wolfram Simon-Schröter (HRB 209645 B, Charlottenburg District Court, Berlin)
  2. ↑ Legal Notice. In: pts.space. Retrieved January 22, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ a b Money for German moon mission. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . September 2, 2019, accessed September 3, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Google Lunar XPrize Milestone Awards Announced. In: Space.com. Retrieved March 29, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Homepage of the Part Time Scientists. Archived from the original on June 5, 2016 ; accessed on June 27, 2016 .
  6. ^ Mission to the Moon. In: Mission to the Moon. Archived from the original on July 4, 2016 ; accessed on June 27, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Audi press kit. In: digital.audi-presskit.de. Archived from the original on March 29, 2016 ; accessed on March 29, 2016 .
  8. ↑ a b c d Inside Audi's wonderfully improbable project to put a rover on the Moon. In: The Verge. Retrieved March 29, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Torsten Harmsen: Rover mission: Berliners want to conquer the moon from Mahlsdorf. In: Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved December 4, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Private space mission: Cellular operator on the moon. In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved July 6, 2017 .
  11. ↑ a b heise online: An LTE network is to be built on the moon. Retrieved July 6, 2017 .
  12. ↑ ptscientists.com/products/payload . Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  13. ↑ Imprint on mission-to-the-moon.shop. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  14. ↑ ArianeGroup and PTScientists to study lunar lander mission for ESA. In: Spacenews. January 22, 2019, accessed September 3, 2019 .
  15. ↑ a b Starting up a new cooperation for the moon. ESA, May 8, 2019, accessed May 8, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Berlin-based New Space company PTScientists and European space company ArianeGroup agree on far-reaching cooperation for lunar missions. PTScientists, May 8, 2019, accessed on May 13, 2019 (in YouTube video from approx. 8:20-10: 40 minutes).
  17. ↑ a b c d At a distance 0045: PTScientists. At a distance, May 28, 2019, accessed on May 29, 2019 (photo taken on May 7, 2019; from 11:40 am ).
  18. ↑ German lunar lander company files for bankruptcy protection. In: Spacenews. July 9, 2019, accessed July 9, 2019 .
  19. ↑ PT Scientists are now called Planetary Transportation Systems. In: Golem.de . September 2019, accessed on September 13, 2019 .
  20. ↑ a b PTScientists: German moon mission finds investor. PTScientists, September 2, 2019, accessed September 3, 2019 .
  21. ↑ After successful renovation: Planetary Transportation Systems takes over management. In: Zeitfracht press portal. January 17, 2020, accessed on January 22, 2020 (German).
  22. ↑ Amanda Stiles: Part Time Scientists: "Hell Yeah it's Rocket Science". Google Lunar X Prize, December 7, 2010, accessed May 5, 2012 .
  23. ↑ Aram Khalili, Jan Luetke: T-7: Space Team Lander Cooperation. Part-Time Scientists, December 17, 2014, archived from the original on February 19, 2015 ; accessed on March 18, 2015 .
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  25. ^ Exploration & Space Mining - Space Forum. In: Space Forum. Archived from the original on May 30, 2016 ; accessed on May 30, 2016 (English).
  26. ↑ The German team at the Lunar X Prize wants to do more than just reach the moon. In: WIRED Germany. July 18, 2016, accessed October 15, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Meet ALINA - the Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module. On PTScientists.com (English). Retrieved September 3, 2019.
  28. ↑ a b Google Lunar Xprize: Audi is now also making the moon the Land of Quattro. In: HORIZONT. Retrieved April 25, 2016 .
  29. ↑ ptscientists.com/products/audi-lunar-quattro (English). Retrieved October 14, 2017.
  30. ↑ a b c Google Lunar XPRIZE: German team offers payload options for the 2017 moon mission. In: OpenPR. Retrieved May 30, 2016 .
  31. ↑ Christoph Seidler: Google Lunar X Prize: Stress test for all-amateurs. Spiegel Online , May 21, 2012, accessed May 21, 2012 .
  32. ↑ Inez Mischitz: Google Lunar XPRIZE: German team offers payload options for the 2017 moon mission. In: Textkraut. Retrieved April 25, 2016 .
  33. ↑ From Mahlsdorf into space: Researchers prepare the first Berlin moon flight. In: bz-berlin.de. Retrieved July 3, 2019 .
  34. ↑ The next moon car comes from Berlin. Motor-Talk.de , January 6, 2018, accessed on January 6, 2018 .
  35. ^ German moon mission - visit to the Apollo moon car. Accessed December 24, 2019 (German).
  36. ↑ a b Welcome the new Audi Lunar Quattro! In: The PTScientists Blog. Archived from the original on June 2, 2016 ; Retrieved April 25, 2016 .
  37. ↑ Peter Janle: The internal structure of the moon . In: Matthias Bartelmann, Thomas Henning (eds.): Stars and space . No. 10 . Spectrum of Science, Heidelberg October 1999, p. 852-859 .
  38. ↑ To the Moon! Lunar XPRIZE team looks to send Wikipedia into space aboard homemade rover. In: Techcrunch. April 21, 2016, accessed September 3, 2019 .
  39. ^ Wikipedia to the Moon / Discussion - Meta. In: meta.wikimedia.org. Retrieved April 28, 2016 .
  40. ^ Wikipedia to the Moon - Meta. In: meta.wikimedia.org. Retrieved April 28, 2016 .
  41. ↑ Moon flight company expands to Austria orf.at, May 18, 2018, accessed May 18, 2018.
  42. ↑ Partners. In: ptscientists.com. Part-Time Scientists, accessed October 15, 2016 .
  43. ↑ Unternehmerregister.de, accessed on May 13, 2019.
  44. ↑ a b Milestone Prizes ( Memento August 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 15, 2017.
  45. ^ Cannes Lions Winners :: Cannes Lions Archive. In: www.canneslionsarchive.com. Retrieved June 27, 2016 .
  46. ^ Cannes Lions Winners :: Cannes Lions Archive. In: www.canneslionsarchive.com. Retrieved June 27, 2016 .
  47. ^ German hobby spaceman on a private mission. Stern, March 28, 2012, archived from the original on March 28, 2012 ; Retrieved May 7, 2012 .
  48. ↑ stern TV - Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 10:15 p.m. - live on RTL, moderation: Steffen Hallaschka. In: presseportal.de. Retrieved June 3, 2016 .
  49. ↑ Moonshot Episode 2. Retrieved January 2, 2017 .
  50. ^ Moonshot. Retrieved January 2, 2017 .
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