Europe's first rover to land on moon - and it's carrying a tiny red ho

[ad_1]

The first lunar rover made in Europe is set to land on the moon tonight, carrying a tiny red house and a scoop.

The rover, called Tenacious, is just 31.5cm wide and 54cm long and weighs 5kg – around the size and weight of an empty carry-on suitcase.

It is one of the smallest and lightest rovers in the world and is operated by ispace EUROPE from Luxembourg.

“It’s a big deal,” said ispace EUROPE’s chief executive Dr Julien Lamamy to Sky News.

“We’ve designed this rover, built it, tested a lot of it, and we’re going to operate it all from Luxembourg.”

“We’re showing that in Europe, […] space companies have a startup mindset that can contribute a lot to the achievements of the European space.”

Tenacious will also be the first private rover to operate on the moon’s surface, and will drive for around ten days before it “gets too cold and too dark”, according to Dr Lamamy.

The rover, which blasted off from Earth on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in January, is arriving on the moon with some fairly unusual cargo.

A tiny red house, designed by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, will be placed on the lunar surface and photographed to represent “an artistic and epic story of new possibilities”, according to ispace.

Mr Genbeg has been trying to get his art to the moon for 25 years, said Dr Lamamy, “but 25 years ago, only space agencies were going to the Moon”.

“To me, that reflects what we’re here for,” he said. “Of course, we’re here to contribute to science and exploration and knowledge about the moon, but we’re also here to give access to other folks that have cool projects.”

There’s also a scoop on board to collect moon dust, which will be sold to NASA for $5,000 (£3,685) – the first ever sale of off-planet resources.