Infinity Avionics has been contracted by entX to design and manufacture parts of the company's Radioisotope Heater Unit (RHU) demonstrator payload.
"Helping other organisations grow by leveraging our core capabilities is what we do best, and this is a great opportunity to support a novel development within Australia with great potential to contribute to the Artemis program," said Infinity Avionics Co-founder and CEO, Igor Dimitrijevic.
Infinity Avionics will build parts for the Payload Management Unit which is part of entX's broader RHU payload.The base RHU payload uses short half-life radioisotopes to generate heat which allows probes to survive through the Lunar night for weeks or months.
“Leveraging the extensive expertise of Infinity Avionics across space electronics, systems design, and manufacturing was a strategic decision that substantially mitigated risk and accelerated the development of our RHU Demonstrator Payload”, explained entX's Technical Manager – Space & Defence, Jake Whittenbury.
entX is also working on a version of the RHU that can help spacecraft survive the Lunar night for up to four years. Development is being funded by the Innovative Launch, Automation, Novel Materials, Communications, and Hypersonics (iLAuNCH) Trailblazer program.