Help name Canadian-made lunar rover

By MARK PAVILONS

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A Bolton-based aerospace firm is asking the public to help make history.

Canadensys Aerospace Corporation needs your help to name the first Canadian rover to explore the Moon. 

The lunar rover will test key technologies and help in the international search for water ice, a key component needed for the future of human space exploration.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) wants its name to be representative of the mission or to allude to Canada's legacy or future in space. The rover will be the first in a series of anticipated lunar rovers, and its name should be inspiring!

Four names were selected as serious contenders for citizens to choose from.

Athabasca: Athabasca is a river flowing from the Rockies through Alberta to Lake Athabasca. Canada's rivers and streams have been the routes of the continent for millennia and continue to be pathways of discovery, transport and exchange. The names of the rivers also reflect Canada's diversity and heritage. Future rovers from our fleet could continue this trend by taking names of other Canadian natural wonders.

Courage: To be brave and confident to do what you believe in, Courage is representative of the work that has led to the Canadian lunar rover. This lunar rover mission is the outcome of over two decades of building and refining our expertise in rover technology with Canadian industry and academia.

Glacier: Glaciers are made of ice, and that is what the rover will be looking for: water in the form of ice. The name also appeals to Canada's northness: glaciers are important features of Canada's West and Arctic. Our country is home to approximately 20% of Earth's glacier ice volume (excluding the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets).

Pol-R: Creative spelling of Polar, which refers to regions close to the North Pole or South Pole. A big part of Canada is located in the north polar circle, and the rover mission will be landing in the south polar region of the Moon.

The public is invited to vote at https://lnkd.in/dvajYfkj

You can only vote once and voting ends Dec. 20. 

The Canadian rover will land on the south pole of the Moon. It will have an onboard suite of scientific payloads. Thanks to a close and ongoing collaboration between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Canadian lunar rover will fly as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

For decades, as part of Canada's plan for robotic space exploration, the CSA has been actively working on refining rover designs and building Canadian expertise in rover technologies.

The rover will explore a region of the lunar south pole. With the help of its scientific payloads, it will gather scientific data to help find water ice and allow scientists to better understand the lunar geology and environment.

The rover will have the ability to drive into and operate inside of permanently shadowed regions for up to one hour; survive lunar nights, which can last up to 14 Earth days at less than −200 °C; use multiple modes of communication; maximize lunar surface operations and scientific data return, and provide panoramic imagery and video of the lunar surface.

The Canadian-made rover will navigate the surface of the Moon to test and demonstrate key systems like surface mobility, telecommunications, dust mitigation, navigation, and remote semi-autonomous control.

Canadensys, with its head office in Bolton, is a space systems and advanced vehicle development company founded on the heritage and expertise that spans a number of Canada's historic space achievements of the last three decades. They blend our heritage with micro and nano space technology and smart, ruggedized vehicle designs to develop unique solutions for planetary, orbital and terrestrial environments based on modern, commercial business approaches to space program and mission development.