Canadian rover helping in global search for frozen water on farside of the moon
CTV
The Canadian lunar rover could soon help reveal the moon's far side. The country's first moon rover is set to put the Canadian Space Agency at the forefront of space exploration, helping in the global search for frozen water on the celestial body.
The Canadian lunar rover could soon help reveal the moon's far side.
The country's first moon rover is set to put the Canadian Space Agency at the forefront of space exploration, helping in the global search for frozen water on the celestial body.
NASA says the moon takes about 27 days to complete a full rotation on its axis as it orbits Earth, leaving the same side visible from the ground at all times. As a result, the far side remains little understood and unexplored.
"That has always piqued everybody's imagination: What is on the other side of the moon?" said Gordon Osinski, the principal investigator for the Canadian Lunar Rover Mission.
Osinski's Canadian team, along with international partners, is preparing to send a 30-kilogram rover to the south polar region of the moonin search of preserved frozen water, possibly a few meters below the surface and mixed into the soil.
The discovery of ice could be a stepping-stone to further explorations of the solar system, including missions staffed by humans, said Chris Herd, a scientific investigator on the mission and University of Alberta planetary geologist.
Herd, who has previously worked on the Mars rover mission, said frozen water "can be extracted and used as a resource for the astronauts to survive." He said the ice could also be split into hydrogen and oxygen for fuel, reducing the cost of bringing those supplies from Earth.
