NASA announced on Monday (September 20) that a robot capable of searching for ice will land in 2023 near the moon’s south pole called Nobile Crater.
The space agency hopes the craft will confirm the presence of frozen water just below the surface, which could one day fuel rockets to Mars or further into space.
“Nobile is a crater near the South Pole, formed by a collision with a smaller celestial body,” said Laurie Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division. It is one of the coldest regions in the solar system and has only been explored from a distance using the sensors of NASA’s lunar reconnaissance orbiter and the lunar crater detection and observation satellite.
The robot is called the Viper and is similar in size to a golf cart, reminiscent of the androids from Star Wars. Its weight is 430 kg.
Unlike robots used on Mars, the Viper can be piloted in near real time, since the distance between the Earth and the Moon is much shorter than on Mars: about 300,000 km, or 1.3 light seconds. The robot is also faster, reaching a top speed of 0.8 km / h.
The Viper is powered by a 50-hour solar-powered battery and is capable of withstanding extreme temperatures. His team primarily wants to find out how the frozen water got to the moon, how it persisted for billions of years, and where the liquid ended up.
This mission is part of Artemis, an American project to return humans to the moon. The first manned mission is scheduled for 2024, but the program could be significantly delayed.
