TAMPA, Fla. — Japanese space robotics enterprise GITAI said May 24 it has raised 4 billion yen ($29 million) to speed up technology development and its U.S. expansion plans.
Tokyo-based early-stage investor Global Brain led the funding round, an extension of a Series B round that raised around $17 million in 2021.
GITAI founder and CEO Sho Nakanose said the funds would support efforts to develop a lunar rover and a two-meter-long Inchworm robotic arm.
The rover recently passed various tests corresponding to Level 4 of NASA’s Technology Readiness Level (TRL), GITAI announced March 24.
In a simulated lunar environment near the western fringe of the Mojave Desert in California, the enterprise said it used two rovers and two Inchworms in March to emulate tasks needed to construct a base on the moon and explore its surface.
The demonstrations included excavation, solar panel and antenna installation, welding, towing an inflatable module, and changing one in every of the rover’s tires.
GITAI said greater than half of the components used for these demonstrations have already passed vibration, radiation, and other environmental tests in a simulated space environment.
The enterprise’s Inchworm robotic arm has reached TRL 5, Nakanose told .
He said a lot of the components on Inchworm are much like GITAI’s 1.5-meter-long S2 robotic arm system, which the enterprise hopes to upgrade from TRL 6 to TRL 7 with an upcoming demonstration outside the International Space Station.
If S2 passes NASA’s final safety review in June, GITAI plans at hand S2 over to NASA for transport to the ISS on a Cygnus cargo mission in December.
The GITAI lunar rover is slated to achieve TRL 6 by the tip of 2024 through various ground tests, in line with Nakanose.
He said the enterprise is in talks with several U.S. launch firms for a 2026 demonstration mission on the lunar surface, where its rover would try and assemble a communication antenna and solar panels, enabling it to achieve TRL 7 or higher in what could potentially be a business mission.
U.S. growth strategy
GITAI plans to make use of a portion of the Series B proceeds to expand into larger engineering and flight model manufacturing facilities in Los Angeles.
The enterprise currently employs about 20 people at nearby Torrance, California, where the seven-year-old company opened its U.S. headquarters in June 2022. GITAI also employs around 20 people in Japan.
Nakanose said the enterprise expects so as to add 30 more employees within the U.S. this 12 months, followed by a further 50 people by the tip of 2024.
The international expansion plan comes after GITAI said in December that it had secured its first purchase order from an undisclosed U.S.-based company. Other customers include the Japanese government and Tokyo-based multinational Toyota.
