NASA will send 2023 lunar rover, water and resource identification mission

NASA has announced the landing site for a robotic lunar rover that is planned to reach the Moon in 2023.

The VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) will land near Nobile Crater at the Moon's south pole, where it will explore and map the surface and subsurface to identify water and other resources.

It is part of the space agency's Artemis program. Her name is taken from the mythology of Apollo's younger sister. In the name of the first lunar mission, which aims to bring the first woman and the next man to the lunar surface by 2024, though the timing is now in doubt.

In 2018 a team of scientists confirmed that water ice exists on the Moon, in the darkest and coldest part of its poles, as quoted from Sky News, Wednesday (22/09/2021).

Five years after that confirmation, VIPER will launch the SpaceX Falcon Heavy before it reaches the surface, one of the coldest regions of the solar system, using the Griffin lander developed by another private company called Astrobotic.

VIPER Landing Location Interesting Decision

The probe will land near Nobile Crater, which is formed when the Moon collides with another, smaller celestial body. Since the crater is almost permanently shadowed, ice can be there.

"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," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA.

"The data that VIPER returns will provide Moon scientists around the world with further insight into the cosmic origin, evolution and history of our Moon, and it will also help inform future Artemis missions to the Moon."

VIPER pentingnya togel data dalam prediksi hasil project manager Daniel Andrews said selecting a landing site for VIPER was an exciting and important decision for all of them.

"Years of research have been carried out to evaluate the polar regions that VIPER will explore. VIPER will enter uncharted territory informed by science to test hypotheses and reveal important information for future human space exploration," he added.