Canadansys Aerospace Corporation has been given the go-ahead to build a lunar rover for Canada – a key step in the country’s first attempt to lead a scientific space mission to another world. The $43 million contract with the Bolton, Ont.-based company. will cover the main design and construction phase of the rover. The four-wheeled vehicle, which could launch as early as 2026, is designed to operate remotely from Earth and carry a suite of scientific instruments to a landing site somewhere near the Moon’s south pole. “We’re breaking new ground,” said Caroline-Emmanuelle Morisset, senior planetary mission scientist at the Canadian Space Agency in Saint-Hubert, Que., after the selection was announced Monday. “And we really want the public to be as excited as we are about this mission.” Dr Morisset said the rover would face significant challenges once it roamed the surface of the moon. The main mission requirement is for the rover to survive at least one lunar night – a 14-day journey in total darkness during which the solar rover will live on battery power while enduring temperatures of around -200C. The hope, he added, is that the rover will perform the feat a few times, leading to a mission that lasts a few months and sets the stage for more ambitious follow-ups. Christian Sallaberger, president and CEO of Canadensys, said the opportunity to build a Canadian lunar rover was one the company had been working towards for years, building on its expertise in developing hardware – including engines, cameras and electronics – that they can withstand the rigors of deep space. The moon struck: How a Canadian company is helping drive humanity’s journey to the moon The project “will affect almost all of our staff,” he said. “I think that bodes well for the future, for having this kind of high-tech activity and industry in Canada.” The rover mission is part of a broader effort by the US space agency, NASA, and its international partners, including Canada, to focus human space exploration efforts on the moon over the next decade. NASA’s Artemis I mission, which is a test of a new rocket and capsule system designed to carry astronauts to the lunar surface, is set to lift off early Wednesday morning. A subsequent mission will include a Canadian astronaut when it makes its first manned flight around the Moon, although it will not include a Moon landing. Meanwhile, the Canadian rover is part of a parallel NASA program in which technology and science missions with private sector partners will be sent to the Moon on commercial launch vehicles. In exchange for a walk on the moon, one of six scientific instruments carried by the rover will be provided by NASA. This means has yet to be determined. Canada’s five science contributions to the rover include instruments that can assess the composition of lunar minerals in situ, measure radiation levels and try to assess the amounts and distribution of water trapped as ice in permanently shadowed regions — particularly near at the Moon’s south pole, where it is deeply cratered and the low angle of the sun creates many such areas. “There are a lot of really clean science questions that we hope to address in this south polar region,” said Gordon Osinski, a professor of planetary science at Western University in London, Ont., and principal science investigator on the recently awarded rover mission. Dr. Osinski said the minerals found on the far south side of the Moon are expected to be different from those near the equator, where American astronauts landed and collected samples more than 50 years ago. Of particular interest is the first half billion years of lunar history, when the moon was heavily bombarded by asteroids. The same would be true on Earth, he added, but that early period has long since been erased from the planet’s geological record — leaving the moon as the best place to look for clues about Earth’s earliest chapters.
