- NASA on September 20, 2021, announced that it would land a water ice-hunting rover on a region of the South Pole of the Moon known as the Nobile Crater in 2023.
- NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) will land on Nobile Crater at the Moon’s South Pole to map and explore the region’s surface for water.
- As a part of Artemis mission, VIPER will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon-Heavy rocket under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.
- Nobile Crater is an impact crater in the South Pole region of the Moon.
- It was formed due to a collision with another small celestial body.
- It is almost permanently covered in shadows which makes the perfect environment for ice to exist.
- The South Pole of the Moon is one of the coldest regions in our solar systems. No mission has ever landed on the Moon’s surface to explore it.
- So far, scientists have studied the region with remote sensing instruments including those on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.
- Data from these prior remote sensing missions helped scientists conclude that water ice and other resources exist under the surface in permanently shadowed areas of the Moon near the Poles.
- NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) is the first that will go close and personal with the lunar soil.
- It will even drill several feet down the crater.
Tags:
Science
