World’s tiniest lunar rover to explore moon on legs rather than wheels
- British spacecraft will attempt to investigate lunar lava tubes, a potential habitat for humans in future
- Walking rover designed with off-the-shelf parts to keep costs down
A lunar rover which will explore the moon on foot in 2021 was unveiled in London on Thursday.
The new spacecraft, with four legs rather than wheels, will send data back to a larger mother ship, which will transmit it back to Earth.
British start-up Spacebit signed a contract with US space robotics company Astrobotic to get the rover on board their Peregrine lander, which will carry 14 Nasa instruments to the moon.
Once the lander reaches the moon’s surface, the rover will drop from beneath it to the surface and attempt to explore a lava tube.
“It’s very important to explore the lunar tubes to know the environment that we have there so potentially humans can live in those lunar tubes when they go back to the moon,” SpaceBit founder and CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk said.
The rover is the smallest lunar rover ever and incorporates some off-the-shelf parts, which drastically reduces the cost, according to SpaceBit.