It was in a setting replicating the surface of the Moon that Courrier du Sud was able to attend the tests of the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) rover, in Saint-Hubert, on October 30. The little robot should travel to the Moon or, to put it another way… “towards infinity and even further”, no earlier than 2026.
A surface filled with craters and rocks, bathed in a striking 18,000 watts of brightness, provides the perfect playground for the robot called a “lunar rover”. These tests were planned to see how the new machine, built by the company Canadensys, would behave in conditions similar to those found on the Moon.
“Mainly what we are looking for are scientific investigations,” explained Martin Bergeron, director of space exploration development at the ASC. It’s to check where the water could be found in its solid form and in what quantity.”
According to the CSA, water is crucial if we want to settle on the Moon one day, since it would be very expensive and complex to transport it from Earth.
“Water is essential to life and helps produce oxygen,” the agency noted in a press release. It would also be used to produce hydrogen, a source of energy that would make it possible to launch rockets from the Moon.”
The robot, which will land at the South Pole of the Moon, will include instruments that are made expressly to answer these types of scientific questions. They will be used, among other things, to measure the temperature at ground level as well as the radiation coming from the sun.
“There is also a technological objective,” continued Mr. Bergeron. Here, we are trying to demonstrate new technical capabilities in terms of mobility and communication, but mainly an ability to survive a lunar night, where temperatures drop to -200°C for 14 Earth days. We will have to see when the Sun returns if the robot is capable of restarting solely on the basis of its battery.”
Not before 2026
In order for the robot to travel to the Moon, which would be a first in Canadian history, the CSA will accompany NASA as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. This program of the American space agency aims to transport scientific instruments, equipment and spacecraft such as rovers to the surface of the Moon.
“The robot is part of a wave returning to the surface of the Moon,” underlined Martin Bergeron. The objective on the surface will be to go beyond Earth’s orbit to develop our capacity to explore, to possibly build a base in order to operate and live there temporarily.
The time for the rover to travel to the Earth’s closest neighbor should be between 4 and 10 days according to Martin Picard, mission manager. However, the latter hopes that their machine will not stay in space for too long due to the risk of radiation.
“And [le robot] spends a lot of time in orbit, it will pass the Van Allen belt, and that can impact the electronics, said Mr. Picard. We will try to limit that as much as possible.”
Objectives of the rover
-Travel to the Moon to see how the different systems work;
-Present the possible applications of a new technology, its feasibility and its operation;
-Carry out scientific measurements that will determine the amount of hydrogen present in the lunar soil, which is one of the best indicators of the presence of water ice, while defining the temperatures at the time of detection;
-Analyze the lunar soil to better understand the geological and mineralogical characteristics of the site;
-Measure the radiation on the lunar surface to know the amount of radiation to which the astronauts will be exposed.
