(Washington) NASA announced Monday that it had selected the Nobile crater, near the South Pole of the Moon, to land its exploration robot in search of ice in 2023.
The US space agency hopes the rover will be able to confirm the presence of icy water just below the lunar surface, which could one day be converted into rocket fuel for missions to Mars and beyond in the cosmos. .
“Nobile Crater is an impact crater near the South Pole that arose from a collision with another smaller celestial body,” Lori Glaze, director of the planetary science division of the NASA.
It is one of the coldest regions in the solar system, and has only been probed remotely so far, using sensors such as those on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.
“The rover will get to know the lunar soil very closely, drilling even a meter deep,” added Lori Glazer.
The robot is named VIPER, acronym for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover.
Heavy at 430 kg, its dimensions are similar to those of a golf cart: 1.5 m by 1.5 m by 2.5 m. It also has some similarities to the Star Wars droids.
Unlike rovers used on Mars, VIPER can be flown in real time, due to the much shorter distance between Earth and the Moon – only 300,000 km or 1.3 light seconds.
It is also faster, traveling at around 0.8 km / h.
Powered by solar energy, VIPER has a 50 hour battery, and is designed to withstand extreme temperatures. It can also move like a crab so that these panels can be pointed towards the sun at all times.
The team behind VIPER will investigate how the ice water first reached the Moon, how it has been preserved for billions of years, how it escapes, and to where.
The mission is part of Artemis, the American project to return humans to the moon.
The first manned mission is officially scheduled for 2024, but will surely take place much later since several parts of the project are already late.