A team of ambitious students from Carnegie Mellon University is on the brink of achieving an extraordinary milestone in space exploration: launching a rover to the moon before the United States’ space agency, NASA. The innovative Iris rover, accompanied by a thought-provoking art project called MoonArk, is set to blast off on May 4th, heralding a new era in lunar research.
A group of students is about to put a rover on the Moon before NASA
Iris mission student commander, Raewyn Duvall, shared her enthusiasm for the upcoming launch in a recent statement: “Countless hours of hard work and dedication have been invested by numerous students into the Iris project. After years of effort, having a confirmed launch date is thrilling. Iris aims to expand lunar and space exploration possibilities by demonstrating the capabilities of a compact, lightweight rover designed and constructed by students.”
During its 60-hour mission, the Iris rover will traverse the lunar landscape, capturing images and transmitting them back to our planet. The rover will join China’s lunar rovers on the moon, achieving a new benchmark as the first American un-crewed rover, the inaugural student-created rover, and the most compact and lightest lunar rover to date.
MoonArk, a project conceived over ten years, will be left on the moon as a time capsule. This intriguing sculpture carries an eclectic collection of images, tunes, nano-objects, poetry, and other earthly representations. The MoonArk team envisions the sculpture eventually being discovered by future generations, connecting humanity across time.
MoonArk project manager, Dylan Vitone, discussed the complexities of designing the project in a statement from 2019: “Artistic interpretation is heavily influenced by context, and removing those contexts presents a unique set of challenges. Our goal was to create a narrative based on shared human experiences that resonates not only today but also a millennium from now.”
The Iris rover and MoonArk projects are scheduled to embark on their journey on May 4th, propelled by a United Launch Alliance rocket. Upon reaching the moon, they will descend in the Peregrine lunar lander, breaking new ground in lunar exploration and encouraging aspiring scientists, engineers, and artists to continue pushing the limits of knowledge and creativity.
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