Finding water on another planet might be hailed by some to be one of the biggest discoveries of mankind, but they are forgetting that it takes far more than just the presence of water to support theories that there is life outside of earth. Well, a spinoff from the Carnegie Mellon University, Astrobotic Technology, has finished building their full-size prototype of a solar-powered robot that was specially designed with just one mission in life – to look for water and ice at the moon’s poles. Known as Polaris, it will carry a drill in order to bore a hole that is one meter deep into the lunar surface, where it will then get to work even in the low-light conditions of the poles.
Touted to be the “first rover developed specifically for drilling lunar ice”, the whole idea of searching for such water would be to look for a potential source that could eventually furnish future expeditions with precious water, fuel and oxygen. A trio of large solar arrays will help keep the Polaris juiced, capturing light from low on the horizon while it continues with its drilling work.
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