Canada’s first lunar rover looks to future space exploration

In a one -hour shopping plaza other than Toronto, a two -storey building with blue windows reflecting the summer sun, surrounded by a SPA and a Shawarma joint.

Canada’s first trip to Hagia is the modest center of Canadensys Aerospace.

Canadensys will be the first Canadian traveling, the first Canadian planetary discovery effort to explore Canada’s only natural satellite.

Models, maps and outer spaceline office walls, engineers wearing anti-static floors work on non-familiar-looking machines.

In his statement to the BBC, the sending of this trave to the moon is part of the company’s “really a wider strategy to really move humanity”.

The authority said that learning about the moon, which has the potential to be a basis for more space research, is a “logical first step”.

“People are excited about science fiction films when they appear. You know, Star Wars or Star Trek. This is the real thing.”

The Canadian vehicle is part of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustainable human being per month.

As part of this inclusive goal, this mobile aims to find water as preparation for future manned mission and to measure radiation levels on the surface of the moon and survive on multiple lunar nights (equivalent to about 14 days in the Earth).

Rover will also show Canada technology that improves Canada’s history in space.

Canada was the third country that launched a satellite, designed the Canadarm robotic arms for the space shuttle and the international space station, and the second is known for astronauts such as Chris Hadfield and Jeremy Hansen, which will be in orbit next year.

35KG Rover is planned to be initiated as part of a NASA initiative in 2029. It will go down to the south polar area of ​​the moon – one of the most experienced places on the surface of the moon.

The vehicle has no name yet. The Canadian Space Agency has participated in an online competition to choose one and is expected to announce the future in the future.

Canadensys is currently working on Rover’s various prototypes. The last vehicle, Mr. Sallaberger, shortly before the launch, he said.

Each component is tested to ensure that the moon can get rid of the harsh conditions.

Temperature is one of the main obstacles. Months may drop to -200C (-328F) at night and 100c (212F) may rise in a daytime.

“One of the biggest engineering challenges we have, because it’s not even survived from cold temperature, it’s swinging between very cold and very hot,” he said.

The design of the wheels is another difficulty as it is covered with a adhesive layer of dust called the surface of the moon, fragmented rock and regolite.

“If you look at soil dirt, microscopically, worn out. In a more or less round way, but the moon dirt soil is rough.” He said.

“Velcro is like dirt,” he said, “just thin the mechanisms,” he said.

The search for water on the surface of the moon is particularly exciting, when the moon is usually considered to be bone dry After the Apollo mission in the 1960s and 70sNASA -led US Human Space Flight Program.

This perception changed in 2008, the chief scientist of the task. Gordon Osinski told the BBC when researchers re -analyzed some Apollo mission samples and found water particles.

At the same time, the space -observing space handicrafts identified the presence of orbit.

Ontario, a professor at Western University in London, said he hasn’t been verified yet and has many problems.

“Is this like an ice patch in the size of the table? Is it the size of a hockey runway? Most people, like in the North Pole, are probably more like ice grains mixed with more soil.” He said.

The water in the month may have great effects on more sustainable discovery. He said that one of the heaviest things they should carry is usually water, so he will open the doors to have a potential source there.

Water molecules can also be broken down to obtain hydrogen used in rocket fuel. Mr. Osinski described a future in which the moon could be some kind of gas station for spacecraft.

He said, “He’s getting more in the realms of science.”

Canada, even in the early 2000s, talked to a Canadian spacecraft by talking with a spacecraft for decades to build a monthly surface vehicle for decades – but until 2019, concrete plans were not announced.

Three years later, Canadensys received a $ 4.7 million c $ ($ 3.4 million; $ 2.5 million).

Founded in 2013, he worked on various aviation projects for organizations and commercial customers such as Canadensys, NASA and Canada Space Agency.

More than 20 instruments built by the company have been used in a series of tasks per month.

But there are difficulties ahead – because even going to the moon is not an easy success.

In March, a spacecraft was overthrown by the commercial US company intuitive machines during landing and ended the task early.

Three months later, the flexibility of the Japanese company Ispace lost contact with the world during landing and eventually failed.

“This is the nature of the work we’re in,” Mr. Sallaberger said. “Things are going wrong and we’re trying to do our best to alleviate it.”

Space research has been a collaborative area for years, even competitors like countries – the United States and Russia – work together at the International Space Station.

But that may be changing, Ossi Osski said. As the possibility of a permanent being on the Moon becomes more realistic, the wider geopolitical questions began to revolve around the ownership of the satellite.

“There is more conversations about the owner of the moon and space resources.” He said.

In 2021, the United States issued a law to protect the Apollo Moon landing site, “because China had only worried that it could only take the US flag or get an Apollo Lander,” he said.

However, there were some encouraging lyrics about Artemis mission, which were more international than the space station.

A series of ideal artemis agreements, which are ideal for promoting the sustainable and peaceful discovery of the outdoor space, are signed by more than 50 countries such as Uruguay, Estonia and Rwanda, which are not traditionally seen as key space race nations.

The area is also becoming more accessible. Private companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin have become increasingly more important, and everyone can take any training to everyone with money and Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos and pop star Katy Perry for a few minutes.

But the Moon is the Holy Grail because it opens all possibilities.

Mr. Sallaberger said that Canadensys took part in longer -term projects such as moon greenhouses for food production.

These are still staying for many years in the future, but a mobile starting point.

“If you design something that can survive in the long run on the moon surface, you will not have a lot of bullets elsewhere in the solar system.”