NASA Plans To Send Water-Hunting Robot To Moon Surface in 2022

NASA will send a golf cart-sized robot to the moon in 2022 to search for deposits of water below the surface, an effort to evaluate the vital resource ahead of a planned human return to the moon in 2024 to possibly use it for astronauts to drink and to make rocket fuel, the U.S. space agency said on Friday. From a report: The VIPER robot will drive for miles (km) on the dusty lunar surface to get a closer look at what NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has touted for months: underground pockets of "hundreds of millions of tons of water ice" that could help turn the moon into a jumping-off point to Mars. "VIPER is going to assess where the water ice is. We're going to be able to characterize the water ice, and ultimately drill," Bridenstine said on Friday at the International Astronautical Congress in Washington. "Why is this important? Because water ice represents something significant. Life support." VIPER stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover.

Taking mass from the moon

[presearch]

What could go wrong?
Especially if they find precious metals?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[Tough Love]

Say, do you have any idea how much Moon there is? Like, say, how much it weighs? Maybe compared to all the mining that has ever taken place in the history of the known universe, or perhaps just starting with the Romans? (indistinguishably different)

Re:

[50000BTU_barbecue]

"Say, do you have any idea how much Moon there is? Like, say, how much it weighs?"

It weighs nothing, it's in free fall.

Re:

[Tough Love]

Ooh so clever! Know the difference between weight and mass, thanks for the clarification!

Hint... of course I know you don't need it... multiply the mass of the moon by 1.

Re:

[rossdee]

    "Especially if they find precious metals?"

If they found a Megagram of gold, platinum or even uranium, on the moon, it wouldn't be cost effective to ship it back to earth.

OTOH if they find water, they can use it there.

Re:

[K. S. Kyosuke]

You wouldn't have to ship it, you could shoot it eventually.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

What could go wrong? Especially if they find precious metals?

Nothing. Nothing at all. Why do you think it would be a problem? You do know the moon is bigger than it looks from Earth?

A water lab?

[goombah99]

Like a Labrador Retreiver. They love to find any puddle. Plus everyone would tune in for the first Dog running on the moon. Just have a stick throwing lander.

Why?

[110010001000]

Elon Musk is taking us directly to Mars. No need for the moon.

Re:

[BuckBundy]

Sure thing, bud.

Re:

[K. S. Kyosuke]

There's still scientific curiosity to be satiated about the Moon. It's not about need.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Power source?

[sinequonon]

I didn't see a power source specified, so presumably it's solar panels and rechargeable batteries. How long will it operate without sunlight in the cold of permanently shadowed crater? How will they get the signal back to Earth?

Re:

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Shadowed craters still have sun-lit rims. In fact, those rims are some of the most insolated places on the Moon. [space.com]

waste of time/money

[AndyKron]

Seriously, the only thing I care about going to the Moon is the complete waste of money it is. Send probes to Saturn's moons instead.

It will have a hight-tech dowsing rod ...

[CaptainDork]

... with AI-driven machine learning using Google quantum supremacy based on blockchain and stored on a customer-grade open AWS bucket.