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Post by rugbytoffee on Oct 25, 2019 18:58:51 GMT
NASA says it will put a robotic rover on the moon that can aid the agency in its search for lunar water. The four-wheeled vehicle, which NASA has dubbed the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, will be the size of a golf-cart and use various science instruments to probe the moon's surface for evidence of water and ice. VIPER is set to be delivered to the moon's surface by December 2022 and once there it will collect 100 days worth of data designed to map potential water sources. It's tool kit for detecting water will include a drill able to bore beneath the surface and a spectrometer than can detect moisture. 'The key to living on the Moon is water – the same as here on Earth,” said Daniel Andrews, the project manager of the VIPER mission and director of engineering at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. 'Since the confirmation of lunar water-ice ten years ago, the question now is if the Moon could really contain the amount of resources we need to live off-world. This rover will help us answer the many questions we have about where the water is, and how much there is for us to use.' Of particular interest to NASA will be the moon's polar region, particularly the south pole. According to researchers from UCLA who recently published a paper in Nature Geoscience, water-ice may be locked deep within the lunar surface, and could even be large enough to support future human settlements. That water-ice may congregate in the moon's polar regions since, like Mercury, it spins on small axis compared to the Earth. As a result, the moon's polar regions never see the sun and experiences some of the coldest temperatures in our solar system - cold enough that water may be Scientists hope that water on the moon's surface will help NASA develop a long term presence. The agency's ongoing Artemis program looks to establish a permanent base on the moon that could facilitate mining operations and also help turn it into a launching point for future space missions. NASA says its aiming to return to the moon by 2024 in an ambitious new deadline set this year.
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