Nasa has unveiled designs for a new lander which will help to make the moon a delivery base for exploration to Mars and beyond.
In a technical paper released by the space agency, it was revealed that the lander will be a robotic pallet which can safely deliver a 47 stone moon rover to the cratered satellite after being launched from earth in a rocket.
Nasa has already awarded "commercial contracts" in connection with the moon lander and hopes to establish "additional partnerships to support upcoming lunar ventures".
Project's lead systems engineer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Cente, Logan Kennedy said: "The lander was designed with simplicity and low cost in mind, generally employing single-string systems, minimal mechanisms, and existing technologies, though some enhancements were targeted in areas such as precision landing."
He continued: "In preparation for robotic missions to the lunar poles and building on lander development history around the Agency, NASA created a ‘pallet lander’ concept to deliver a 300-kg rover to the surface to search for and characterise volatiles."
Mr Kennedy further explained that as Nasa plans to unload more and more scientific instruments and eventually people on the moon, the need for a new lunar lander was necessary.
“As robotic lunar landers grow to accommodate larger payloads, simple but high-performing landers with a contiguous payload volume will be needed," he added.
“This concept was developed by a diverse team of people over many years and meets that need.
“We hope that other lander designers can benefit from our work."
