AstroAnt

MIT Media Lab–connected research, people, and community moments shaped headlines and campus life throughout 2025.

A panel from MIT Media Lab and Dell highlights a lunar mission using AI and XR to advance human-centered, sustainable space exploration.

MIT students and faculty designed and fabricated a control room for a unique lunar landing mission — an achievement in design + engineering

Prof. Craig Carter’s precision design for a student-led project now on the moon encodes messages from around the world on a silicon wafer

Data from the devices will help future astronauts navigate the moon’s south polar region and search for frozen water.

With a launch date no earlier than February 26, 2025, three MIT research payloads aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will travel to the moon

Director Dava Newman talks with ILP as part of their Faculty Feature, discussing her work at the MIT Media Lab.

AstroAnt was selected from the Robotics + Automation category.

Before researchers send a project like AstroAnt to the lunar surface, they have to test it somewhere like the moon.

Terrestrial tests help to ensure that the AstroAnt's teeny-tiny wheels keep turning when it reaches the moon.

This miniaturized swarm robot can ride atop a lunar rover and collect data related to its health.

Castrol supports the AstroAnt Payload Program, a robotic swarm designed for tasks on spacecraft, rovers, and landers.

Founded in 2016 and now in our eighth year, we set our sights on space. The Space Exploration Initiative has since grown to …

Media Lab SEI’s 2024 microgravity flight features 37 parabolas and projects focused on health in space, walking in zero gravity, and more!

Castrol membership supports the AstroAnt Payload Program.