As NASA prepares for its next mission to the Moon, it has announced PROMISE – the rover it hopes to send to its new lunar base.
The Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping and In-Situ Exploration, or PROMISE, is a twin of the Mars rover, Perseverance. The Mars rover touched down on the planet in February 2021, and has been exploring Mars ever since, conducting investigations and collecting samples for NASA.
Originally, PROMISE was built as an engineering model, meaning the mission team used it to test and troubleshoot problems and procedures before trialling them out on the actual Mars rover.
In this previous incarnation, the rover was known as OPTIMISM (Operational Perserverance Twin for Integration of Mechanisms and Instruments Sent to Mars), but has now been renamed to reflect its new mission.
The agency is exploring the possibility of sending PROMISE to the Moon to scout the lunar south pole, characterise the surface and subsurface and prospect for resources. Engineers believe that although the rover was originally designed for Mars, it could be modified for use on the Moon.
Along with the announcement, NASA also revealed that new contracts had been awarded to three aerospace companies for four lunar landers to launch by the end of 2028.
NASA is planning to send a total of 17 landers to the Moon over the next few years as part of the Moon Base programme.
These will pave the way for the Artemis missions, which aim to set a human back on the surface of the Moon. The agency also plans to develop a Moon Base by 2030.
This base will support long-term lunar exploration, providing infrastructure that will sustain a long-term human presence and activity on the Moon’s surface.
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