Canada's First Rover for Exploring the Moon
On Tuesday, September 2, 2025, the Canadian company Canadensys Aerospace announced they were building Canada’s first rover to explore the Moon so that it could learn more about it. The vehicle will be Canada’s first exploration try.
Canadensys Aerospace wants to learn about the Moon so people might be able to use it to go deeper into space. The rover going to the Moon is a step of their “broader strategy of really moving humanity off the Earth,” according to Dr. Christian Sallaberger, the company’s president and CEO. It is the “logical first step,” he said.
The rover is expected to land on the Moon’s south polar region, one of the most dangerous areas on the lunar surface, in 2029.
Description
On Tuesday, September 2, 2025, engineers were working on some versions of the rover — the actual one will be made prior to departing.
The wheels are an obstacle because the Moon has a sticky outer layer of regolith (fragmented dust and rock, or dirt particles), which clogs the machine. According to Dr. Sallaberger, “Earth dirt, if you look at it microscopically, has been weathered off. It’s more or less in a round shape, but on the Moon, the lunar dirt soil is all jagged.”
One of the biggest challenges is how to let the rover sustain the temperature. They can go up to 100℃ (212℉) at daylight, and down to -200℃ (-328℉) at night. Mr. Sallaberger said, “It’s one of the biggest engineering challenges we have because it’s not so much even surviving the cold temperature but swinging between very cold and very hot.”
Purpose
The rover will go to the Moon as a step in the NASA Artemis program. The mission for Artemis is to determine if people can survive and live on the Moon.
The Canadian vehicle will play an important role in the research. The goal is to try to discover water and measure radiation levels on the Moon.
Currently, the Canadian Space Agency has chosen to have an online contest to decide what the rover’s name will be, and the winner will be announced soon.
SOURCES:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/c9878w2wg4ko
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jn4ryxdp3o