Ice-Mining Experiment on the Moon’s South Pole May Help in Building a Lunar Base

NASA recently announced its plan of sending an ice-mining experiment to the south pole of the Moon that is set to be launched late next year. This mission will head to a ridge close to the Shackleton crater, an area they have been studying for months and where they could dig ice.

To fulfill the experiment, NASA sends a hopper robot, a 4G network, and a robot that will dig into the Moon's regolith. The space agency could help them establish a presence in space, especially with the upcoming Artemis missions.

Three Technologies the Lander Will Bring to the Moon

NASA's ice-mining experiment mission is called the Polar Resources Ice-Mining Experiment (PRIME-1) to send an ice-mining experiment to the south pole of Earth's natural satellite, Slash Gear reported.

The space agency confirmed the landing site on November 3, a ridge near the Shackleton crater where they could find ice beneath the lunar surface and operate for at least ten days for the mission. Also, the area has a clear line of sight to Earth that will enable constant communication.

Aboard the Nova-C lander of Intuitive Machines are three technologies that will conduct the ice-mining experiment. The first is the drill and mass spectrometer, while another one is a 4G/LTE communications system that Nokia of America and Micro-Nova developed. The last one of these technologies is a hopper robot that Intuitive Machines designed.

NASA said that one of the biggest challenges in planning this ice-mining experiment is finding the right landing location. They noted that surface temperature could go high and will melt the ice. So, they had to find a location where they could dig ice near the surface while also having enough sunlight to power the scientific payloads for the experiment.

ALSO READ : NASA Orion Spacecraft in Production Stage for Upcoming Artemis Moon Missions, In-Space Environment Simulation Performed

NASA's Ice-Mining Experiment

Researchers from NASA collaborate with other researchers from Arizona State University, Nokia, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and Intuitive Machines to build ice-mining maps of the lunar surface using remote sensing data.

NASA said that operating and drilling into the tough lunar surface will give them helpful insights for future lunar missions, like the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission scheduled to land on the Moon's south pole in 2023.

According to Daily Mail, Nokia's job will be to test the cellular network using a rover that the Lunar Outpost developed that will venture more than one mile away from the Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander to test the network's strength.

NASA added that this could pave the way for a commercial 4G/LTE network on the Moon if successful, including high-definition video from astronauts to base stations and vehicles to base stations.

NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate director of technology maturation, Niki Werkheiser, explained that these early technology demonstrations use innovative partnerships to gain valuable insights about operating on and exploring the lunar surface. These data will inform designs for future uses, such as mobility, communication, power, and mitigating problems of Moondust.