Europe prepares to land rover on the Moon for first time
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Europe prepares to land rover on the Moon for first time
Lunar rover to land on the surface of the moon on Thursday. It will be the first time the moon has been touched by a man-made object. The rover will carry a camera that can capture images of the lunar surface. It is expected to be operational by the end of the year. The mission will cost around $2.5 million to $3.5 billion to complete. The project is funded by the European Commission.
Named Tenacious, the rover is less than 2ft long and can carry a payload of just over one pound.
Built by the European arm of Japanese lunar exploration company Ispace, it will be controlled by ground staff in Luxembourg, who will be able to drive it at up to four inches per second in near real time, using a video camera mounted on its front panel.
Once on the Moon, it will deliver an art project called Moonhouse, a 3in-high model of a typical red Swedish cottage, developed by Mikael Genberg, a Swedish artist.
The team hopes to place the house in a location where it can be photographed with the Earth in the background.
The rover is also carrying a shovel to collect lunar regolith – moon dust – which will be sold to Nasa for $5,000 (£3,685) under an agreement that will make history as the first off-planet sale of resources.
First landing thwarted
It is the second attempt to land on the Moon by Ispace, after the company’s first craft crash-landed on the lunar surface in 2020.
An investigation later found that a software glitch had led the spacecraft to believe it was on the surface when it was still several miles from landing.
Takeshi Hakamada, the founder of Ispace, said: “Just over two years ago, Ispace became the first private company in the world to attempt a lunar landing.
“While the mission achieved significant results, we lost communication with the lander just before touchdown.
“Since that time, we have drawn on the experience, using it as motivation to move forward with resolve. We are now at the dawn of our next attempt to make history.”
The rover is being carried in a lander spacecraft called Resilience which launched in January on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and entered lunar orbit on May 6.