Manned space exploration and the return of the man on the moon became one of the main objectives of NASA.
Representatives NASA have officially declared the intention to create and send America’s first lunar Rover on the companion of the Earth in 2023, what will be the first stage in the implementation of the program return US to the moon.
“We would like to send a Rover to the moon as quickly as possible. It will be big enough Rover, whose mass is from 300 to 500 pounds. We aimed at studying the poles of the moon and the long-term, multi-month job,” said Steve Clark (SteveClarke), Deputy Director of the research division of NASA.
Manned space exploration and the return of the man on the moon became one of the main tasks of NASA after winning Donald trump in the presidential elections of 2016. The President of the United States and Jim Bridenstine, the future administrator of NASA, often talking about the plans to build a station orbiting the moon, landing on its surface and the creation of a “permanent infrastructure” on the satellite of our planet.
The first step towards the implementation of these plans is the agreement NASA and leading space nine startups and large companies, signed in November last year. In the framework of aerospace Agency of the USA can use their services to deliver their vehicles to the moon in the coming years.
In accordance with these agreements, NASA in the next 10 years will be eligible to send an unlimited number of landing modules, Rovers and other “goods” to the moon. The total cost of sending them and maintaining them must not exceed $ 2.6 billion.
Initially, Clark and other leaders of the space Agency hoped that the first scientific instruments to be sent under this agreement at the moon this year. Speaking at the Conference for the study of the moon and planets, which is now in Texas the-woodlands, he talked about some of the changes in the lunar projects.
As noted by the official, NASA plans to focus its efforts on creating a full-fledged Rover, whose main task will be to find significant deposits of water on the earthís companion and an assessment of its overall reserves.
For this reason, the first lunar Rover of the United States or its “heirs” will go to the polar regions of the moon where orbiting satellites have found hints of the presence of clear ice on the bottom of many of the dark craters.