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A Jumping Lunar Robot Is About to Explore a Pitch-Black Moon Crater for the First Time
Packed with instruments and rovers, the soon-to-launch IM-2 mission will explore the lunar south pole and attempt something never done before—to enter a shadowed moon crater to look for ice.
The lander, nicknamed Athena and about the size of a car, is partially funded by NASA, as the US space agency attempts to create a new lunar economy that can support upcoming planned human missions to the moon. The goal was to give money to private companies to build landers to travel to the moon, carrying NASA instruments and other equipment to the lunar surface, ahead of the planned return of humans this decade in the Artemis program. The other, a larger rover the size of a suitcase from the Colorado company Lunar Outpost, called MAPP (Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform), will drive off into the distance at a top speed of 10 centimeters a second.
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