5000 hrs
Time Savings
5000 hours of developer time savings on in-house tool development
$100k+
Cost Savings
Over time, Astrolab
will save $100,000s
Review Time
Untold hours saved due to simplification and consolidation of data access across all systems
Challenges
Founded in 2020, Astrolab faced a challenge in transitioning from a hardware-light feasibility phase to subsequent design and build phases without efficient data management tools. Anticipating potential issues, they sought a solution to minimize technical debt and ensure engineers remained focused on rover development.
To position themselves ahead of the curve, Astrolab’s founders made a decision based on prior experience with advanced observability systems. They knew firsthand how an advanced telemetry stack could multiply their engineering effort and save time. Under the ethos of “better sooner than later,” Astrolab made the decision to minimize any future technical debt and looked to Sift for a solution.
Developing this kind of system in-house would have required significant resources devoted to building and maintaining it, and Sift was a fraction of the cost. More than anything, Astrolab didn’t want to incur more work for its engineers or spend unnecessary time migrating data. With Sift, they gained a team of specialists and a tool that would scale with them long term.
In April 2024, NASA awarded Astrolab a contract worth up to $1.9 billion to advance the development of its lunar rover, making the company’s early decision to implement Sift a strategic one.
Choosing Sift was an important decision for us. It eliminates a big dilemma on whether we spool up internal resources to design a tool, or spend time trading other tools. It provides a one stop shop for all of our data, telemetry, storage, and access needs.”
Niraj Patel
Astrolab Senior Software Engineer
Working with Sift
Astrolab is setting itself up for long term success by choosing Sift early on in its development. Now, teams won’t have to slow down, retrain, and migrate data to various tools.
The company’s FLEX rover will be semi-autonomous and can be teleoperated, which means engineers will need to create simulated data of the rover’s performance that it can analyze and compare with real-world operations.
Sift gives Astrolab the ability to test hardware in the loop, automatically review simulation data, collaborate with external partners, certify hardware genealogy, and store crucial information for as long as needed.
Collaboration
Astrolab’s engineers need the ability to collaborate with other team members, analysts and scientists within a common sight picture to build and scale their vehicle.
Sift’s inline annotations, customized channels, and no-code visualization, ensure engineers can quickly identify and troubleshoot anomalies — saving time and making faster decisions.
Role Based Access Control
Astrolab’s contract with NASA requires specific access for external stakeholders, in order to share telemetry data and information throughout the entire program.
Sift’s Role Based Access Control (RBAC) supports Astrolab’s compliance with an easy-to-use, precise method of managing external requirements, while maintaining full confidentiality.
Hardware field testing
To build and scale their product on time, Astrolab’s engineers need to test hardware in the field with simultaneous visualization. They will run thousands of tests and the ability to quickly view data is crucial.
Sift gives Astrolab the ultimate resource for testing, with live streaming visualization that doesn’t require writing code. Astrolab won’t have to spend time reconciling different data streams or memorizing timestamps, and engineers can view data on mobile devices.
Simulation
Astrolab needs to move quickly and iterate at speed. To efficiently (and safely) bring their product to market, engineers must continuously run hardware tests in the loop, checking and rechecking data along the way.
Sift’s automatic data review ensures more thorough processes and saves Astrolab weeks of time conducting manual review. This translates to more frequent releases, enabling Astrolab to mitigate potential risk.
Hardware test stand setup
As Astrolab builds its rovers, it will need to run through various qualification and hardware test campaigns. The data from those tests needs to be stored in a cost-effective way that engineers can analyze and generate reports from.
With Sift’s storage interface, Astrolab can quickly find and analyze data without incurring enormous cloud costs saving the company time and money.
Genealogy
Astrolab isn’t just sending a single rover to the Moon. It’s sending a fleet. This means the company will be in a continuous production and delivery cycle long term. Engineers will need to trace every piece of hardware from production through testing and operation, and maintain that history without interruption.
With automatic data review, customized storage, and automatic certification, Sift gives Astrolab a genealogy of each hardware component throughout the lifespan of its vehicles.
Sift spared us from heavy internal tool investment and unified our data management. It provides a complete stack that’s intuitively accessible, plus we get an advanced, supportive team behind it, so it really wasn’t a question for us.
Niraj Patel
Mission Operations Lead, Astrolab
Faster, more thorough testing
Visualize, store and track hardware test data for individual components.
Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
Customize access for external stakeholders with complete confidentiality.
Visualization and Data Review
Collaborate with in-line annotations and troubleshoot issues without lengthy manual processes.
“Astrolab’s early decision to use Sift speaks to the forward-thinking founders at the helm. By anticipating future challenges, they got ahead of it with a telemetry stack that will give them the tools to successfully pioneer multi-planetary exploration.”
Karthik Gollapudi
CEO, Sift
About Astrolab
Venturi Astrolab, Inc. (Astrolab) is pioneering new ways to explore and operate on distant planetary bodies. Focused on designing, building, and operating a fleet of multi-purpose commercial planetary rovers, Astrolab is extending and enhancing humanity’s presence in the solar system.
The company is developing its multi-functional Flexible Logistics & Exploration (FLEX) rover to support human operations, robotic science, exploration, logistics, construction, resource utilization, and other activities critical to enabling a sustained human presence on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
