The MoonRanger project is being led by William "Red" Whittaker, director of the CMU's Field Robotics Center. This is the third lunar research mission awarded to Whittaker by NASA since June of this year.
The new rover will be about the size of a suitcase and weigh roughly 24 lb (11 kg), though it will be very fast as rovers go and enjoy a high degree of autonomy as it makes detailed 3D maps of the lunar terrain. Because the MoonRanger is too small to send radio signals directly to Earth it will gather data independently and then upload it to the Astrobotic lander, which will deliver the rover to the surface. The lander will then relay the data to mission control.
Water they hoping to find?
Related Stories
Astrobotic selects Falcon Heavy to launch NASA's VIPER lunar rover
Astrobotic has signed a contract with SpaceX for the launch of its Griffin lunar lander, carrying a NASA lunar rover, on a Falcon Heavy in 2023.
Astrobotic announced April 13 that it selected SpaceX's Falcon Heavy for its Griffin Mission 1 lunar lander mission, which will deliver the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) spacecraft to the south pole of the moon in late 2023. Astrobotic won a NASA competition through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program last year to transport VIPER on its Griffin lunar lander.
[...] VIPER is a NASA mission to investigate permanently shadowed regions of craters at the lunar south pole that may contain deposits of water ice that could serve as resources for future crewed missions. It is designed to operate for 100 days after landing.
NASA originally planned to launch VIPER in 2022, with a mission cost of $250 million. However, NASA postponed the launch to late 2023 to provide more time for work to increase VIPER's mission life from 14 to 100 days. That, in turn, drove up the cost of VIPER to $433.5 million, NASA disclosed in March.
Previously: Astrobotic to Use "CubeRover" to Explore the Moon
NASA Selects Three Companies to Land Science Payloads on the Moon
MoonRanger Robotic Rover Will Seek out Water on the Moon
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2020, @01:36PM (1 child)
Instead they should figure why everyone dreams have increased and yawning almost completely ceased. Did covid kill the brain cells responsible for the yawning urge?
Even when we try to yawn and open our mouths no yawn comes out. Some breath or sound might but not a real yawn.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 25 2020, @01:45PM
That's because of the Skittles, no relation with covid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 25 2020, @04:02PM
It's good to see some equality in space. You can pack a midget or a dwarf into a suitcase, with ease. They don't need nearly as much oxygen and other resources as tall people!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2020, @04:11PM
[voice of Scotty] Sure, and maybe y'can find water on the moon, but how're y'gonna pipe it to California?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2020, @06:02PM (1 child)
Can’t wait, I’ll put down $20 on Yutu for home field advantage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutu-2 [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 25 2020, @06:25PM
The bunny was a fake. He wasn't equipped with Energizers.