Australia is making a significant breakthrough in space exploration with the development of its first homemade moon rover. As part of this project, Australians were allowed to vote on the vehicle's name.
Name Selection for Space Machinery
The Australian Space Agency has opened voting for the name of the country's first moon rover. Voters are allowed to cast their votes until midnight Friday, December 1.
On November 20, the agency offered its shortlist of four potential names for the rover: Mateship, Roo-ver, Kakirra, and Coolamon. A coolamon is an Aboriginal dish for carrying and gathering, while Kakirra refers to the Kaurna (the Aboriginal people of the Adelaide Plains) word for moon.
Residents made over 8,000 submissions to the original open callout for names. Some names not included in the shortlist include Sheila, Bluey, Matilda, and Rover McRoverface. According to Australian Space Agency head Enrico, the judges were looking for names that 'capture Aussie ingenuity, Aussie spirit". The agency also wanted to give the country's first moon rover a creative and inspirational name.
The space agency will select the winning design scheduled to land on the Moon by 2026.
Stride in Space Exploration
The rover project, known as Trailblazer, is currently in its initial phase, where it has seen two consortiums of academic and industry partners. The Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth (AROSE) and ELO2 received 4 million dollars each for the conceptualization and designing of the rovers.
The lunar rover will land on the Moon as part of NASA's program to establish more human presence on our celestial neighbor. The project, first announced in 2021, will involve the collection of lunar regolith and delivering it to in situ resource utilization (ISRU) facilities. NASA will try to extract oxygen from these samples to help further human space exploration. The extraction of oxygen from the surface of the Moon rather than carrying it into space on expensive rocket flights will be important in maintaining human presence outside of low-Earth orbit.
The rover weighs a maximum of 20 kilograms (44 pounds) and will measure 30 centimeters (12 inches) tall and 50 centimeters (20 inches) wide. It is programmed to scoop up lunar soil and deposit the sharp moon dirt at nearby ISRU facilities, where it can be processed to extract oxygen.
According to AROSE director of space programs Dr. Newton Campbell, the Moon offers unique challenges for designing mining equipment. Since the Moon does not have atmosphere or liquid erosion properties, the lunar regolith is much sharper than soil particulates on Earth.
Extreme temperature variations need space-age shielding and sensor technologies, while long communications delay needs a high level of autonomy. Additional signal problems can also occur based on factors like electromagnetic interference due to solar radiation.
Australia has a minor but significant role in NASA's Moon to Mars exploration. The overall project plans to establish a permanent lunar base of operations, allowing the first humans to land on Mars someday.
Check out more news and information on the Lunar Rover in Science Times.
