explore

Lunar rover: A look at Canadian tech bound for the moon

Lunar rover: A look at Canadian tech bound for the moon

Located in Bolton, Ont., Canadensys Aerospace is starting to engineer and build the rover to explore the moon for water ice as part of an international mission that’s been ongoing for decades. One of the payloads, provided by Bubble Technology Industries from Chalk River, Ont., can detect iron and calcium and the presence of hydrogen that can help scientists locate water ice. Besides building the rover, Canadensys will create three payloads: a Lyman-Alpha Imager to identify surface water ice, a Multi-Spectral Imager to identify minerals on the moon, and an MSI-Macro to collect similar data through mineralogy but with a higher resolution. Radiation will be measured with a device from Teledyne DALSA, a Waterloo, Ont. company. "We've got two objectives really," Sallaberger said. "The engineering side… preparing for eventually larger rovers and human missions. But on the scientific side, the main goal is looking for water." For humans to live long-term on the moon, there needs to be a sustainable water source. Sallaberger says the moon's south pole is likely to have water ice in the shadowed craters.