Last Update: April 20, 2023, 09:33 IST
Media reported that a team of American college students aims to land the first robotic rover on the Moon before NASA. (Credits: Reuters)
The Iris rover has been developed by students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. Space.com reported that it will be flown to the Moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
Media reported that a team of American college students aims to land the first robotic rover on the Moon before NASA. The Iris rover has been developed by students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. Space.com reported that it will be taken to the Moon under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The mission, expected to launch this spring, represents America’s first robotic moon rover as well as the first rover developed by university students.
NASA’s first robotic Moon rover – the VIPER rover – is set to launch next year.
Weighing 2 kg, the Iris Rover has a chassis, and its carbon-fibre wheels are shaped like bottle caps. Its 60-hour mission will be primarily visual: photographing the lunar surface for geological study.
It will also test new localization techniques as it transmits data about its position back to Earth.
Meanwhile, NASA is aiming to build more than one moon base for the Artemis lunar mission to maximize science and exploration, the report said.
NASA’s goal of returning astronauts to the Moon by 2025 has long been part of a long-term plan to build a permanent base on the lunar surface.
According to Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development, the agency’s Artemis program could eventually lead to multiple bases built around the Moon instead of a single Artemis Base Camp at the lunar south pole as unveiled in 2020.
“It’s really hard to say we’re going to have only one base camp,” Frey told reporters at the 38th Space Symposium here.
“Because, if we miss a launch window, we might have to wait up to a month to get back into that space.”
To set up a series of moon camps on the lunar surface, NASA could work with its international partners such as the European Space Agency, Canada or Japan, which have all signed on as Artemis program partners, Frey said.
“So we might have maybe two or three sites to go to that help our science diversity, because the reason we’re doing Artemis in the first place is for the science,” Frey said.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
