First Canadian rover to explore the Moon

Canada's role

The Canadian rover will land on the south pole of the Moon. It will have an onboard suite of scientific payloads: several Canadian and one American. Thanks to a close and ongoing collaboration between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Canadian lunar rover will fly as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

Building on the success of past scientific instruments, academia and industry will once again have the chance to showcase Canadian know-how and innovation. The project is a technology demonstration meant to set the foundation for future Canadian lunar exploration.

For decades, as part of Canada's plan for robotic space exploration, the CSA has been actively working on refining rover designs and building Canadian expertise in rover technologies.

Why send a rover to the Moon?

Rovers provide the mobility to help gather geologic and mineralogic information on samples at different locations, and send data back to Earth, as opposed to landers that can only analyze in one location.

Using their tools and instruments, they can help scientists learn more about the important resources on the Moon that will be needed to establish a long-term presence there and eventually send humans farther into space.

Who will build the Canadian rover?

In November 2022, Canadensys Aerospace Corporation (Canadensys) was selected to build the Canadian lunar rover as well as to integrate the Canadian payloads and the NASA-provided instrument.

The company will work with organizations from industry and academia:

• Industry
  • Bubble Technology Industries – Chalk River, Ontario
  • Encoded Mountain – Toronto, Ontario
  • Leap Biosystems – Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • Maya HTT – Montreal, Quebec
  • NGC Aerospace – Sherbrooke, Quebec
  • Waves in Space Corporation – Cambridge, Ontario
• Academia
  • Simon Fraser University – Burnaby, British Columbia
  • University of Alberta – Edmonton, Alberta
  • Université de Sherbrooke – Sherbrooke, Quebec
  • University of Winnipeg – Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • Western University – London, Ontario
  • York University – Toronto, Ontario
• International partners
  • Arizona State University – Arizona (USA)
  • Johns Hopkins University – Applied Physics Lab – Maryland (USA)
  • NASA Ames Research Center – California (USA)
  • Oxford University – Oxford (UK)
  • University College London – London (UK)
  • University of Hawaii – Hawaii (USA)

What will the Canadian rover do on the Moon?

The rover will explore a region of the lunar south pole. With the help of its scientific payloads, it will gather scientific data to help find water ice and allow scientists to better understand the lunar geology and environment.

The rover will have the ability to:

• drive into and operate inside of permanently shadowed regions for up to one hour
• survive lunar nights, which can last up to 14 Earth days at less than −200 °C
• use multiple modes of communication
• maximize lunar surface operations and scientific data return
• provide panoramic imagery and video of the lunar surface

The rover will navigate the surface of the Moon to test and demonstrate key systems like surface mobility, telecommunications, dust mitigation, navigation, and remote semi-autonomous control.

Rover operations will be performed in Canada. Both Canadian and American scientists will have access to the data collected by the rover's scientific payloads.

Objectives

The objectives of the Canadian lunar rover are to:

• travel on the surface of the Moon to understand how the various engineering systems perform
• showcase the possible applications, feasibility and performance of new technologies
• make scientific measurements that will help determine the amount of hydrogen present in the Moon soil, which is one of the best indicators of water ice, while defining at which temperatures it is detected
• analyze the lunar soil to better understand the geology and mineralogy of the site
• assess how much lunar surface radiation future astronauts will be exposed to

Payloads

• Lunar Hydrogen Autonomous Neutron Spectrometer (LHANS): Detection of hydrogen, one of the best indicators of water ice, will be the primary purpose of the instrument. It will also have the capacity to detect other key elements such as iron and calcium. This payload is provided by Bubble Technology Industries (BTI) from Chalk River, Ontario.
• Radiation Micro-Dosimeter: This payload will allow scientists to assess how much radiation human crewmembers and lunar infrastructures will be exposed to. It will provide data on the radiation environment through time for the lunar south pole. It will be integrated by BTI and Canadensys, with support from Leap Biosystems.
• Multipectral Imager (MSI): This imager uses LEDs of various wavelengths selected to identify minerals such as pyroxenes, olivines, hematite, spinel, but also water ice. It is provided by Canadensys.
• Stereo-Cameras: This payload will produce 3D information of the surroundings for rover navigation, and will help with mineral identifications. Canadensys is developing it.
• NISA-1000: This imager data combined with the Stereo-Cameras data will help detect the presence of mafic minerals (rich in iron and magnesium) and surface water ice. This payload is also developed by Canadensys.
• Lunar Advanced Filter Observing Radiometer for Geologic Exploration (LAFORGE): This multispectral imaging infrared radiometer will measure heat coming from the lunar surface to determine the temperature, thermal inertia and composition of geologic materials on the Moon's surface. This is a NASA-sponsored payload being built by Johns Hopkins University – Applied Physics Laboratory.

Technical details

The Canadian lunar rover is a major initiative under the CSA's Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program. This program fosters innovation in areas of strength for Canada, like robotics, science, and health.

Explore further

• Moon exploration
• Rover fleet
• A Canadian utility rover on the Moon