Discover more.Measure less.
Fair Sky Materials Intelligence tells lunar missions what the ground is made of, and how it will behave when they drill it, heat it or build on it.
What it's good for
Drilling and excavation
How strong, hard and abrasive the ground is, so you can pick bits and power and predict wear.
Processing
Where the water, ilmenite and best melt feedstock are, and how much heat it takes to get them out.
Building
When regolith sinters and how strong the result is, for landing pads, roads and bricks.
Dust
Which fine grains fly fastest, stick to hardware and pose a health risk, and what they're made of.
SIFT
A dust sensor for the last seconds of landing.
When a lander touches down, its engine blasts dust sideways. SIFT rides on a lander leg, catches that dust, separates coarse grains from fine, and measures the composition of each. It turns every landing into a size-sorted sample of the site.
- 1CatchAn inlet facing the plume takes in exhaust gas and dust.
- 2SortThe gas turns toward the vents and heavy grains can't, so large grains land in the center and fine grains at the edge.
- 3MeasureA spectrometer under the window plate reads each ring.
- CenterLarge grains: rock and mineral fragments.
- Middle ringMedium grains: minerals mixed with glass.
- EdgeFine grains: glass and weathered dust, the kind that damages hardware.
MoonGrade
A foundation model for lunar materials.
Every instrument sees only one side of a material. MoonGrade combines their data, checks it against material physics and predicts how the ground will behave, with an uncertainty on every result. It works with instruments already headed to the Moon, with or without SIFT.
Instrument data in
- Raman spectrometerWhich minerals?
- Laser spectrometer (LIBS)Which elements?
- Near-infrared spectrometerHow much ice and water?
- Microscope cameraHow big are the grains?
- SIFTComposition by grain size
Engineering properties out
Mechanical
- Compressive strength
- Hardness
- Abrasiveness
Thermal
- Thermal conductivity
- Heat capacity
- Sintering and melting points
Resources
- Water content
- Oxygen yield
Every result comes with an uncertainty.
Learned from data. Grounded in physics.
Spectral physics
How each mineral and ice makes its spectrum, and how mixing and grain size change it.
Chemistry balance
The minerals in the model must add up to the elements the instruments measure.
Grain and pore physics
How grains pack, how big the pores are, and how ice fills them and bonds the grains.
Mechanics and heat
How strength, wear and heat flow follow from the minerals, grains, pores and ice.
MoonGrade works on its own. SIFT gives it something no other instrument can: composition, grain size by grain size.
Grain size changes how regolith digs, flows, heats and even how its spectra look. Adding SIFT's size-sorted measurements sharpens every prediction MoonGrade makes, and every landing adds to what it knows.
Flying a lander, building an instrument or planning ISRU?
We're talking with lander operators, prospecting missions and instrument teams. Tell us what you're working on.
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