Australia is asking for help again. It’s about their lunar rover

More and more private space industry companies and state agencies are interested in the Moon. Recently, they sent their machines to the surface of the Silver Globe India and Japan, although in the case of the latter we can only speak of partial success. He also wants to join this group Australia, which plans to send its own rover to the Moonbut only in 2026.

Australia invites citizens to design

At the end of last year, the Australian Space Agency organized a competition in which citizens of the country could participate. It was about coming up with a name for the future lunar rover. The Roo-ver option from the word Kangaroo won. Names such as Coolamon, Kakirra and Mateship were also high in the ranking.

Now the Agency invites you to have fun again. The aim of the second phase of the competition is to select the most interesting design for the regolith sampling arm (Regolith Sample Acquisition Device). There is not much time left, as you can submit your proposals until March 8. The winner of this stage will be selected on April 1 and can count on a prize of $3,000. The participants of the previous competition were also awarded. According to the statement, the first three places could count on $2,100 each, the next three places would get $1,600, and the next three places would get $975.

Roo-ver will be sent to the lunar surface in 2026 in cooperation with NASA as part of the Artemis program. Its purpose will be to collect regolith samples and deliver them to the ISRU (In-situ Resource Utilization) infrastructure managed by NASA. The rover will land near the Moon’s south pole, where it will spend 14 Earth days working.