Nasa junks robotic mission to Moon

WASHINGTON: In a major disappointment to the lunar scientists’ community, the US space agency has cancelled the first-ever robotic mission to Moon that was supposed to excavate material such as hydrogen, oxygen and water from the lunar poles.

According to a report in The Verge on Friday, Nasa pulled the plug on Resource Prospector that aimed to be the first mining expedition on another world.

“There are no other (Nasa missions being planned to go to the surface of the Moon,” Phil Metzger, Planetary Physicist at University of Central Florida who is part of the team for Resource Prospector, was quoted as saying.

Building on the findings of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) missions that proved the existence of water on the Moon, Resource Prospector planned to take the next step and harvest resources.

According to an earlier Nasa statement, the agency planned to launch Resource Prospector in the 2020s.

“After a three-day journey from the Earth to the Moon, the lander will set down on the lunar surface and deploy a rover carrying the “in-situ resource utilisation” (ISRU) instruments.

“As the rover traverses the lunar surface, it will use prospecting tools to search for sub-surface water, hydrogen and other volatiles,” the US space agency had said. According to Nasa, harvesting consumables and fuel off of Earth is an important step in truly pioneering space.