NASA Will Send Automated Robots To The Moon By 2019 To Prepare It For Human Astronaut Missions

When US President Donald Trump signed a directive recently to send astronauts back to the Moon, no one said they¡¯d be doing the same old thing.

No, in fact, NASA is planning to send a few mechanical astronauts to the lunar surface first, to prepare the way for their biological brethren.

That¡¯s right, NASA is planning to send a number of robots to the Moon as part of commercial delivery missions, as soon as next year. They¡¯re going to deliver automated technology and instruments that will carry out tasks like searching for hydrogen to use as fuel and to identify water. The idea is to prepare the lunar surface for a human return, possibly even to set up the beginnings of a colony.

Specifically, the hardware will include a Near Infrared Volatile Spectrometer Subsystem (NIRVSS) to identify water and other volatiles, a Neutron Spectrometer Subsystem (NSS) to search for hydrogen, a regolith and ice drill, and a Water Analysis and Volatile Extraction (WAVE) instrument to analyse water and other volatiles extracted from below the surface.

¡°These tools will provide important scientific data on various landing sites, and will help NASA better understand the lunar environment,¡± says Dennis Andrucyk, deputy associate administrator of NASA¡¯s Science Mission Directorate. The robotic missions will be the US¡¯ first human return to the Moon in nearly 50 years, since Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the surface in 1969.

The missions won¡¯t just be a NASA project either. The new directive plans to partner the space agency with both private industrial groups as well as international efforts under a new National Space Council.