WATER-HUNTING LUNAR ROVER TO BE SENT TO MOON

NASA announced Thursday it is hiring a private company to send the golf-cart-sized VIPER rover to the moon in 2023, to search its south pole for water. The space agency is ramping up its effort to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024. VIPER would help NASA decide what regions astronauts should explore and how much life-sustaining water there is. NASA awarded the US$200 million contract to Pittsburgh-based

Astrobotic as part of a program to create a permanent lunar presence. Water, when broken into hydrogen and oxygen, could be used for astronauts’ hydration, and also as air to breathe and as rocket fuel, allowing for exploration farther into space, including to Mars. And it could help open economic markets in deep space by turning the moon into a “gas station” in space.