biology

OrbitBeyond

OrbitBeyond is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand OrbitBeyond rather than just read about it. In short: Orbit Beyond, Inc., usually stylized as ORBITBeyond, is an aerospace company that builds technologies for lunar exploration. Its products include configurable delivery lunar landers with a payload capacity of up to 300 kg (660 lb), and rovers.

Key takeaways

OrbitBeyond belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect OrbitBeyond to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of OrbitBeyond from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Orbit Beyond, Inc., usually stylized as ORBITBeyond, is an aerospace company that builds technologies for lunar exploration. Its products include configurable delivery lunar landers with a payload capacity of up to 300 kg (660 lb), and rovers.

Overview On November 29, 2018, ORBITBeyond was selected to bid robotic lander contracts from NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). ORBITBeyond has engaged former Google Lunar XPRIZE competitor TeamIndus (Axiom Research Labs) for lander engineering, Honeybee Robotics for payload integration, Advanced Space for mission management, and Ceres Robotics for surface operations. Their aim is to create collaborative and scalable spacecraft exploration platforms to support commercial market growth in the cislunar space. On May 31, 2019, NASA announced that it had selected OrbitBeyond as one of three commercial partners to deliver NASA payloads to the Moon with its Z-01 lander in 2020 and 2021. OrbitBeyond was awarded $97 million to land NASA payloads in Mare Imbrium by September 2020. However, the company dropped out of this contract in July 2019, citing its inability to complete the missions on schedule. Orbit Beyond remains a CLPS contractor eligible to bid on future contracts.

Spacecraft

The company is developing two lunar landers, Z-01 and Z-02, and a small rover called ECA.

Z-01 Z-01 is based on TeamIndus' lunar lander, previously known as HHK1. On its maiden mission it would carry up to 40 kg of commercial payloads. It features a main engine that produces 440 N, and sixteen 22 N thrusters for finer orbital maneuvers and attitude control (orientation). Its first mission was planned to launch in Q3 2020, on a Falcon 9 rocket but the CLPS contract was cancelled by Orbit Beyond in July 2019. The mission was targeting Mare Imbrium (29.52º N 25.68º W) just north of Annegrit crater. The landing ellipse for this mission was approximately 2 km x 1.9 km. The lander features automated hazard avoidance capabilities. One of the science payloads is the Lunar Ultraviolet Cosmic Imager, an 80 mm aperture telescope that will scan the sky in the near UV frequencies (200–320 nm) to look for transient sources. The telescope has been completed and tested, and as of March 2019, is awaiting integration to the lander.

ECA rover Z-01 lander would deploy a micro-rover called ECA (Ek Choti si Asha, Hindi for "A Small Hope"), also developed by Team Indus (now called Axiom Research Labs). ECA is a technology demonstrator tasked with visually exploring the vicinity of the landing site to a range of at least 500 m. The vehicle is a solar powered electric 4-wheeled rover, its mass is less than 10 kg (22 lb), and its maximum drive speed is about 6 cm/s. ECA is equipped with a pair of articulated stereo cameras and a Sun sensor. Monitoring and commanding of the rover is done exclusively through a lander relay link. The rover will operate for one lunar day, and is expected to succumb to the long frigid lunar night.

Z-02 Z-02 is a larger lander concept that would carry up to 500 kg of commercial payloads.

See also Google Lunar XPRIZE Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Newspace

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with OrbitBeyond

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what OrbitBeyond claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to OrbitBeyond before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about OrbitBeyond ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of OrbitBeyond

In research: OrbitBeyond appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses OrbitBeyond in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: OrbitBeyond is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Aerospace companies of the United States, Cancelled missions to the Moon, Cancelled space probes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for OrbitBeyond outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study OrbitBeyond in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what OrbitBeyond means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain OrbitBeyond out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is OrbitBeyond in simple terms?

Why does OrbitBeyond matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study OrbitBeyond?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on OrbitBeyond.