Rover to retrace Apollo’s footsteps
July 23, 2009 by david.gump
Posted 07.23.2009 at 3:59 pm
Boiling noons and cryogenic nights will prove two of the hells inflicted upon a sun-fueled rover when it retraces Neil Armstrong’s first steps across the moon in 2011, beaming home high-definition footage along the way.
The solar-powered robot, designed by Pittsburg-based Astrobotic Technology, is competing for Google’s Lunar X-Prize of $25 million. Victory or no, the rover will visit Apollo 11’s landing site along the desolate equator, where it intends to study the affects of a lunar environment upon materials the mission left behind. Understanding how four decades of radiation and bombardment by minute meteorites impact earthly technology could help space agencies like NASA plan for future moon expeditions, the company says. MORE
