All articles tagged with #robotic mission
China’s Chang’e-7 mission, featuring an orbiter, lander, rover and a hopping lander, aims to locate and characterize water ice in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon’s south pole, mapping its depth and accessibility to support future science and resources like drinking water, fuel, and oxygen for crewed missions while highlighting ongoing international interest in lunar water and related policy questions.
Io, one of Jupiter's moons, is a dynamic hellscape of fire and ice with volcanic eruptions producing extremely hot lavas and enormous lava lakes. Scientists are developing a robotic space mission named "Prometheus" to explore Io's volcanoes up close and collect samples. The mission, if selected, would launch in the early 2030s and use autonomous navigation to fly through one of Io's volcanic plumes, capturing high-resolution images and videos. The collected samples would provide insights into Io's deep past and help answer questions about the origins of Jupiter, its moons, and the solar system.