NASA announced Wednesday that it will send an ice-mining experiment to the Moon’s south pole, which will be put into orbit late next year.
The mission will visit a ridge close to Shackleton Crater by the end of 2022, an area where NASA engineers and scientists believe there may be ice beneath the surface.
This region, which has been studied for ‘months’, receives enough sunlight to power a lander for a 10-day mission, while still being in clear line of sight for communications.
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This will be the first time that resources will be found and extracted on the Moon, which could help NASA establish a presence in space, especially for the upcoming Artemis missions.
NASA is working with Intuitive Machines, the agency’s partner, on the mission for commercial delivery to the Moon. It will use Intuitive’s Nova-C lander.
NASA will send an ice-mining experiment to the Moon’s south pole, which will be determined in late 2022 using the Intuitive Machine’s Nova-C lander (pictured).
The mission will head toward a ridge close to Shackleton Crater (pictured) by the end of 2022, an area where NASA engineers and scientists believe there may be ice beneath the surface
The agency said the region and the conditions that accompany it offer the “best chance” to prove that three technologies will work on the upcoming robotic lander:
- Polar Resources Ice-Mining Experiment-1 (Prime-1).
- A 4G/LTE communication network developed by Nokia of America Corporation.
- and Micro-Nova, a deployable hopper robot developed by Intuitive Machines.
Jackie Quinn, PRIME-1 project manager at NASA’s Kennedy Space, said the ‘Prime-1 Permanently Intuitive Machine’ is attached to the Nova-C lander, and finding a landing location where we can see the ice cubes within three feet of the surface. Finding it was challenging. center, in Statement.
‘While there is plenty of sunlight to power the payload, the surface gets hot enough to keep the ice within reach of the PRIME-1 drill. We needed to find a ‘Goldilocks’ site that would receive enough sunlight to meet mission requirements, as well as a safe place to land with good Earth communications.
Shackleton Crater gets enough sunlight to power a lander for a 10-day mission
NASA in October 2020 Chosen Before the 2024 Artemis mission, Nokia will build the first cellular network on the moon.
Once the lander touches down on the Moon’s south pole, the Prime-1 drill, known as Trident, will attempt to drill down to three feet of lunar soil (regolith) and look for water once it is on the surface. Will do
The other PRIME-1 instrument, MSolo, will measure gases emanating from the excavated regolith TRIDENT.
A group of researchers – NASA, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, Nokia, Arizona State University and Intuitive Machines – created ‘ice-mining’ maps of the surface using remote sensing data.
‘Operations and drilling only into the hard lunar surface will provide engineers with valuable insights for future lunar missions, such as the Volatile Probe Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, mission, which is set to land at the lunar South Pole in late 2023. ‘ NASA said in the statement.
Nokia will test the cellular network with a rover developed by Lunar Outpost Enterprise, more than a mile from the Nova-C lander, to test the strength of the network.
If successful, it could pave the way for ‘a commercial’ 4G/LTE network on the lunar surface, which includes high-definition video from astronauts to base stations, vehicles to base stations, NASA said.
‘These early technology demonstrations employ innovative partnerships to provide valuable information about operations and exploration on the lunar surface,’ explained Nicky Verkheiser, director of technology maturity for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
‘The data will inform designs for future in-situ resource utilization, mobility, communications, power and dust mitigation capabilities.’
Under the Artemis mission, NASA will land the first woman and the next man on the moon in 2024.
In Greek mythology, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and the goddess of the moon.
NASA has chosen her to lead her way back to the Moon, which will see astronauts return to the lunar surface by 2024 – including the first woman and the next man.
Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
Artemis 1 will be the first integrated flight test of NASA’s deep space exploration system: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and ground systems at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Artemis 1 will be an unmanned flight that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration, and demonstrate our commitment and ability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.
During this flight, the spacecraft will launch on the world’s most powerful rocket and fly farther than any spacecraft designed for humans.
It will travel 280,000 miles (450,600 km) from Earth, thousands of miles from the Moon, during a mission of about three weeks.
Artemis 1, formerly Exploration Mission-1, is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars. This graphic explains the different stages of the mission
Orion will stay in space longer than any other spacecraft for astronauts and will return home faster and warmer than ever before, without having to dock at the space station.
With this first exploration mission, NASA is taking the next phases of human exploration into deep space where astronauts will begin building and testing systems near the Moon needed for lunar surface missions and exploration of other destinations far from Earth, including Mars. will do.
Will take the crew on a different trajectory and test Orion’s critical systems with humans.
Together, Orion, SLS and ground systems at Kennedy will be able to meet the needs of the most challenging crew and cargo missions in deep space.
NASA ultimately wants to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon by 2028 as a result of the Artemis mission.
The space agency hopes the colony will uncover new scientific discoveries, demonstrate new technological advances, and lay the foundation for private companies to build the lunar economy.
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