CMU To Put Robotic Rover On The Moon

PITTSBURGH, PA - Nearly 50 years after man first set foot on the moon, Carnegie Mellon University announced it intends to land a robotic rover there in July 2021. Not even NASA has put a robotic rover on the moon before.

The four-wheeled rover will be about the size of a shoebox and weigh only four pounds. It will be equipped with video cameras. The rover will get to the moon via a Peregrine lander, built and operated by CMU spinoff Astrobiotic Inc., which last week was awarded a $79.5 million contract to deliver 14 payloads to the moon surface.

"Carnegie Mellon is one of the world's leaders in robotics. It's natural that our university would expand its technological footprint to another world," J. Michael McQuade, CMU's vice president of research, said in a statement. "We are excited to expand our knowledge of the moon and develop lunar technology that will assist NASA in its goal of landing astronauts on the lunar surface by 2024."

The landing will be on the near side of the moon in the vicinity of Lacus Mortis, or Lake of Death, which CMU officials said features a large pit the size of Heinz Field. The rover will serve largely as a mobile video platform, providing the first ground-level imagery of the site.

Accompanying the rover will be an eight-ounce arts package called MoonArk. Designed by Lowry Burgess, a CMU School of Art professor emeritus, MoonArtk contains four chambers containing hundreds of small images, poems, music and nano-objects.