Meet ROO-ver, Australia's first-ever lunar rover

Australia is set to make history when it lands its first robotic rover on the moon towards the end of the decade.

The nation's first lunar rover prototype, nicknamed the ROO-ver, was today unveiled by space technology consortium EL02. 

The project, which has been in development for the past 18 months, aims to understand the resources available on the moon and pave the way for future human missions to Mars.

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ROO-ver is equipped with advanced sensors provided by NASA to analyse the composition of lunar soil, including the presence of oxygen and water.

The Australian government has allocated 42 million dollars to build the real ROO-ver, which will be sent to the United States by the end of the decade and subsequently transported to the moon by NASA.

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The rover's mission is expected to be controlled from Adelaide, with engineers using radio technology to navigate the lunar surface – although it will have a lifespan of just 14 days.

"From navigating, to the weather, to understanding the impacts of climate change, to our national security, (they) all rely on space," EL02's Enrico Palermo said.

"So we need to make sure as a nation we have access to space."

This article was produced with the assistance of 9ExPress.