NASA picks Moon landing site for ice-drilling robot mission
Recommended for Middle Grades
In 2023, NASA is launching a robotic rover to look for water-ice at the Moon’s South Pole. The mission is named VIPER. This stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover. VIPER will land near the western edge of Nobile Crater. This is a 73km-wide crater.
However, before VIPER happens, NASA is launching another mission first together with the company Intuitive Machines. They will land a small lander set in 2022 at the Shackleton Crater landing site at the south pole of the Moon. The location is called the “Shackleton connecting ridge”. And NASA believes that there could be ice below the surface there.
This 2022 robotic mission includes NASA’s Polar Resources Ice-Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1). This robotic lander needs solar power and a view of Earth for communications. So, the ridge zone is a good location. PRIME-1 aims to use a drill, called The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (or TRIDENT). This drill will try to go as deep as almost 1 metre into the soil. PRIME-1 will also have an instrument to measure gases.
VIPER and Artemis missions
NASA plans to use the “lessons learned” from PRIME-1 to prepare for VIPER, which will be a bigger mission. The VIPER mission in turn will provide support later when humans land on the Moon as part of the Artemis mission.
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