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NASA's Getting A New Rover To Help Create Oxygen & Water On The Moon
Australia will send a rover to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis mission. But the rover is not just any rover, it is key to producing water and oxygen on the Moon’s base. NASA’s Artemis mission will attempt to achieve long-term human presence on the Moon’s south pole. Initially, NASA plans to send cargo and supplies but is also investing heavily in closed-loop autonomous environments capable of sustaining human life.
With Artemis, NASA wants to expand the spirit of international space cooperation that is successful in the International Space Station. The Artemis Accords have been signed so far by 12 countries including Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the UK. Russia and China refused to sign the accord as they form a new group of allies with other countries and triggering what may be the new space race.
The Australia Space Agency announced that the new rover for the Artemis mission will be able to identify, transport, and unload lunar regolith (rock and dust) to a NASA-operated in-situ resources utilization system ISRU. The launch date for the rover was set as early as 2026. Australia is not a random choice for the job, as the country is heavily experienced in mining and robotics. “Australia is at the cutting-edge of robotics technology and systems for remote operations, which are going to be central to setting up a sustainable presence on the Moon and eventually supporting human exploration of Mars,” Enrico Palermo, head of the Australian Space Agency said.
Regolith Harvesting, Innovation Essential For Life In Space
NASA has been exploring the Moon and Mars for decades using rovers and orbiters. The focus has been on the search for volatile elements like water, oxygen, hydrogen, iron, silicon, and others. Explorations show that these elements are presently trapped inside extraterrestrial soil. The VIPER or Volatiles Investigation Polar Exploration Rover, a mobile robot, will travel to the lunar south pole in 2023. The VIPER will take a close look at the concentration of water ice that can potentially be harvested to sustain human exploration.
NASA has already tested systems on Earth that drill and process soil rich in volatile elements to extract them. While the tests were successful these were of short duration. The Artemis mission ISRU system needs to be designed for long-duration stress and to withstand the harsh environment of space. The Australian rover will feed the ISRU system with regolith, working in pairs with another NASA rover designed to perform the same task. The system will be a demonstration of technology that can be rapidly scaled up to larger capacity units in the future if successful. Regolith harvesting on the Moon shows just how challenging space exploration is, simple things like breathing requires massive investment, innovation, and technology to be executed in space.
