NASA has selected a landing site for its golf cart-sized VIPER rover, which is set to land on the Moon in 2023 in search of traces of water.
The robotic vehicle will land near the western edge of the Nobile Crater, a 45-mile-wide impact crater at the Moon’s south pole, the space agency announced.
NASA said the terrain in the Nobile region is ‘most suitable for the VIPER rover to navigate, communicate, and characterise potential water and other resources’.
Nobile Crater was formed through a collision with another smaller celestial body, and is almost permanently covered in shadows, allowing ice to exist there.
The Moon’s south pole is one of the coldest areas in our Solar System and no prior missions to the Moon’s surface have explored it.
During its 100-day journey, the $433.5 million (£306 million) VIPER rover will also scout out potential landing sites for the upcoming crewed Artemis mission to the Moon a year later.
NASA’s Artemis programme will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024, specifically at the lunar south pole region.
NASA has selected a landing site for its golf cart-sized VIPER rover (artist’s impression pictured), which is set to land on the Moon in 2023 in search of traces of water
A data visualization showing the mountainous area west of Nobile Crater and the smaller craters that litter its rim. The region features areas permanently covered in shadow
Nobile Crater, which is 45 miles (73km) in diameter and almost constantly cloaked in shadow, was chosen following an ‘extensive selection process’, NASA said.
‘Once on the lunar surface, VIPER will provide ground truth measurements for the presence of water and other resources at the Moon’s south pole, and the areas surrounding Nobile Crater showed the most promise in this scientific pursuit,’ said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters.
‘The data VIPER returns will provide lunar scientists around the world with further insight into our Moon’s cosmic origin, evolution, and history.
‘It will also help inform future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond by enabling us to better understand the lunar environment in these previously unexplored areas hundreds of thousands of miles away.’
Running on solar power, VIPER – which stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover – will be the first rover with headlights on the Moon, helping it explore regions of our natural satellite that have been in permanent darkness for billions of years.
The 5 foot by 5 foot rover weighs about 950lb, can travel at 0.5 mph and has three spectrometers – devices that measures the wavelength and frequency of light.
The lunar south pole with craters including Nobile annotated, as imaged by Diviner, an infrared radiometer aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Nobile Crater as imaged by Diviner. The area VIPER will study in the Nobile region covers an approximate surface area of 36 square miles (93 square km), 10 to 15 miles (16 to 24 km) of which VIPER is expected to traverse through during the course of its mission
The VIPER team aims to address how frozen water and other resources arrived on the Moon in the first place.
They also plan to identify where they came from, how they remained preserved for billions of years, how they escape and where they go.
Smaller, more accessible craters surrounding Nobile’s perimeter will also provide VIPER with ideal locations to investigate in its search for ice.
So far, scientists have only studied the Nobile Crater using remote sensing instruments, including those on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, which both launched in June 2009.
Data from these and other missions helped scientists conclude that ice and other potential resources exist in permanently shadowed areas of the Moon near the poles.
‘Selecting a landing site for VIPER is an exciting and important decision for all of us,’ Daniel Andrews, VIPER project manager, said.
‘Years of study have gone into evaluating the polar region VIPER will explore.
‘VIPER is going into uncharted territory – informed by science – to test hypotheses and reveal critical information for future human space exploration.’
The area VIPER will study in the Nobile region covers an approximate surface area of 36 square miles (93 square km), 10 to 15 miles (16 to 24 km) of which VIPER is expected to traverse through during the course of its mission.
‘During this time, the rover will visit carefully chosen areas of scientific interest that will provide further insight into a wide array of different kinds of lunar environments,’ NASA said.
The Moon’s South Pole is one of the coldest areas in our Solar System and no prior missions to the Moon’s surface have explored it
VIPER, which is equipped with sensors, a 3 foot drill and solar panels, will collect samples from at least three drill locations.
Analysis of these samples from a variety of depths and temperatures will help scientists to better predict where else ice may be present on the Moon based on similar terrain, allowing NASA to produce a global resource map.
This map will help scientists better understand the distribution of resources on the Moon to inform future crewed missions.
NASA revealed the VIPER project back in May this year, which it said at the time will evaluate the environment and potential resources at the lunar south pole in preparation for Artemis astronauts.
Once on the Moon, the rover will explore lunar craters using a specialised set of wheels and suspension system to cover a variety of inclines and soil types.
VIPER will be the first rover with headlights on the Moon, helping it explore regions of our natural satellite that have been in permanent darkness for billions of years
The rover’s design significantly builds on a former robotic concept to prospect the Moon called Resource Prospector, which NASA canceled in early 2018.
NASA can’t be exactly sure what the soil in the Moon’s polar regions will be like – hard and compacted, fluffy, or somewhere in between.
So VIPER is designed for unprecedented agility. The rover can drive sideways or diagonally, spin in a circle and move in any direction without changing the way it’s facing.
If it encounters soft soils, it will even be able to walk its wheels by moving each wheel independently to free itself.
Throughout the Artemis program, NASA will send robots and humans to explore more of the Moon than ever before.
When astronauts return to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972, they will follow in VIPER’s wheel prints and land at the lunar south pole.
It is also hoped that establishing a sustainable lunar presence will ultimately be used as a ‘stepping stone’ for the first human mission to Mars.