ESA preparing to explore the Moon: MoonNext Concept

Slow and steady, putting calmly one foot in front of the next, the European Space Agency is coming strong and has mostly celebrated their successes quietly and in a not very spectacular way. The ATV is becoming a foundation for ESA’s own future manned space flight system as well as being the most advanced spacecraft built to date. BBC reports that ESA is developing a plan to send a rover to the moon’s south pole region to look for water ice and to test technology. The concept is called MoonNext and intends to send a rover by 2015. Just like the mars rovers this vehicle would be solar powered and could therefore work in the south polar region where large areas are constantly illuminated by the sun. Of course one other main focus of this mission would be to look for ore and resources in preparation for later manned landings and a moon base down the road. Also finding water ice would be fundamentally important for a manned presence. This rover will obviously also serve as testbed for the planned mars rover within the Aurora exploration program called ExoMars.