WASHINGTON: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has planned to send a golf cart-sized robot named VIPER to the moon in 2022 to search for deposits of water below the surface.
It is an effort by NASA to assess the essential resource ahead of a planned human return to the moon in 2024 to possibly use it for astronauts to drink and to make rocket fuel.
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According to the NASA Head Jim Bridenstine, there are underground pockets of hundreds of millions of tons of water ice that could help turn the moon into a jumping-off point to Mars.
During a conference in Washington, Bridenstine said, “VIPER is going to assess where the water ice is. We’re going to be able to characterize the water ice, and ultimately drill.”
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He added, “Why is this important? Because water ice represents something significant. Life support.”
The VIPER robot is expected to arrive on the moon’s south polar region in December 2022.
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It will carry four instruments to sample lunar soil for traces of hydrogen and oxygen, all basic components of water that can be separated and synthesized into fuel for a planned fleet of commercial lunar launch vehicles.
Scientists have eyed lunar water as a key resource for enabling long-duration astronaut missions on the moon, though its form and exact amount are unknown. VIPER will aim to find out.
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