Breaking news! ESA's Erasmus Innovation Center has been transformed into several polar regions, ESA said, "it is an analogue of the polar regions of the Moon." All of this was done for a rover competition. And to know if the rovers are good, they have to be tested, so different artificial lands were made artificially in the Erasmus Innovation Center of ESA.

But in the end what rovers are we talking about?

This is a competition for lunar rovers, which is intended for all European and Canadian researchers and institutes. ESA wants this project to see if there are rovers strong enough and equipped to go on the moon. Participants can bring one or more vehicles. And one must find the vehicle or vehicles that are capable of prospecting resources on the Moon in the near future. All these projects are taking place at the European Center for Innovation in Space Resources (ESRIC) in Luxembourg.

ESA also announced that it has already selected 13 teams, shortly after the announcement. The first test will be on the field and will be called: Challenge and will take place in November, the amount that will be awarded by ESA to the first 5 teams fitted with the best rovers for this project are worth 375,000 EUR (approx. 440,060 USD) ESA has announced that this is the first prize to be awarded, but another one is coming to the possible field test, next year with even bigger winnings. ESA said: "The focus is on prospecting - identifying promising resources in a difficult monthly environment, then characterizing them as closely as possible, such as spectral analysis," said Massimo Sabbatini, who runs the Erasmus Center. which is part of ESA's ESTEC technical center in the Netherlands. - ESA.

Massmiom also told ESA that: "We are preparing for the first field test in November, which will take place in a larger location, yet to be revealed, but first we decided to try the challenge for ourselves, here at Erasmus. We used an existing rover provided by ESA's Planetary Robotics Lab to test the tasks we planned for the Challenge, to make sure they weren't too heavy or too light. We also need to fine-tune the latency level to be simulated - the signal delay to and from the Moon. "

ESA and not only believe that in the poles of the Moon are frozen lakes and oceans, or in short frozen waters that can provide scientific, biological, mathematical and some physical information if they are uncovered and their content is discovered.

ESA said of the poles: "They do not experience the extreme crippling temperatures of the Moon's two-week days and nights." And because the conditions there on the Moon are not really extreme, rovers will be put to the test to be able to pass some portions, in this center, and then to get to take objects from the Moon and bring them back to this center, they will be probably some objects or different stones, not rocks on the moon. Also when challenged, rovers will have to contend with challenging lighting conditions and the potential loss of signal events. 

If they lose the signal, ESA said they must be able to find the signal as quickly as possible, locate resources in context and be able to map a small crater if they are there. And these must happen in a maximum of 2 and a half hours. A lot for us, but for a rover, not very much. And remote-controlled rovers, ie those that are controlled by remote control, must be able to make their way through the initial "crossing zone" in the "region of interest" and find the resources and analyze them. And of course this will take place at the "2nd challenge" next year, also in Luxembourg. 

We wish success to ESA and its collaborators, as well as to those who participate in this rover competition to make the best rovers, to be launched as soon as possible and to bring valuable and correct information. 

Article by: Andacs Robert Eugen

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