Masten Space Systems

With temperatures as cold as to -232 °C, the lunar night is not a friendly place for electronics. Space technology company Masten has developed a more efficient, safer system that uses chemical reactions to keep lander electronics warm until dawn.

Masten Space Systems is working on a way to protect future lunar landers from the regolith thrown up by their engines as they land, by using their engine plume to create their own landing pads just before touchdown.

In anticipation of more ambitious planetary missions, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with Masten Space Systems have recently tested new landing technologies using a vehicle called the Autonomous Descent and Ascent Powered-flight Testbed.

The Masten Xaero reusable suborbital rocket, an outgrowth of the Lunar Landing Challenge winner, carried out a highly successful test flight.