(NASA)
NASA has chosen the area of work for the new VIPER lunar rover. It will investigate the content of water ice in the soil in the vicinity of the large Nobile crater in the south polar region of the Moon.
The bottom of the crater is almost always hidden in the shadows.
The launch of the rover into space is scheduled for November 2023, and its life is estimated at one hundred days.
The VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) is being created by Astrobotic Technology under the Artemis program.
The total weight of the four-wheeled lunar rover will be 430 kilograms, it will be comparable to a small car.
The rover will be equipped with a neutron spectrometer, a mass spectrometer and an infrared spectrometer.
VIPER will also have a drill, one meter long, that it will receive energy using solar panels.
It is expected that in a hundred days of operation, the device will conduct at least three drilling sessions, analyze the composition of the regolith and the obtained soil samples
The rover will also draw up a map of the distribution of water ice in the studied areas of the south pole of the Moon.
The data collected by the lunar rover will help scientists understand where it is best to place an inhabited base on the lunar surface.
Now, NASA announced that it had selected a site for VIPER: a mountainous area west of the 79-kilometer Nobile crater, which is almost constantly in the shadow, creating a cold "trap" for ice.
The total area of the area is approximately 93 square kilometers, and it is expected that the distance traveled by the rover will be between 16 and 24 kilometers.
VIPER will be launched into space by SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, and the rover will be aboard the Griffin descent module, which is also being developed by Astrobotic Technology.
The launch is currently scheduled for November 2023.
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