Australia’s giant leap in quest for life on the moon

“Interesting things happen in vacuum environments,” Sorensen said. “Tin grows whiskers. There’s vacuum welding; parts sitting next to each other can become joined.”

The suitcase-sized, semi-autonomous rover has large wheels built with blades that can dig into the fine regolith and traverse the unforgiving, low-gravity lunar surface.

“Regolith is a very fine substance. It’s 20 to 70 microns, roughly, and it’s very irregular, sharp and abrasive,” Sorensen said. “It’s also sticky, it’s got an electrostatic property to it. That’s extremely wearing on components.”

Roo-ver will fly to the moon this decade, said head of the Australian Space Agency Enrico Palermo, boosting activity and jobs in the space sector in the lead-up to launch.

“This is one of the most, if not the most, advanced robotic projects happening in our country,” Palermo said. “It is a big part of Australia’s commitment and contribution to the Artemis program.”

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NASA’s Artemis III mission will deliver astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo. The long-term vision of the Artemis program includes establishing a permanent base camp on the moon.

Science and Industry Minister Ed Husic said the Roo-ver program’s tech advances will be applied to other areas of industry on Earth.

“Beyond this being an Aussie moonshot, the great thing about this is that it’s using our know-how – particularly in automation, robotics and advanced engineering. The things we learn up there on the moon we can bring back to strengthen Australian manufacturing.”