Britain wants to launch a robotic ‘space spider’ to the Moon in 2021, the first time a walking rover has been sent to explore a distant world.
The tiny probe – called Asagumo – was designed by robotics experts at London’s Spacebit, and is expected to orbit the moon by Nasa next summer.
It marks the first time a British rover has gone to the Moon, and engineers at Spacebit have chosen legs instead of wheels so they can choose their route over bumpy ground, and crawl through underground lava pipes to see if they could them to be the people who live in them. .
Many experts now believe that lava tubes – rock-like tunnels created by rivers of lava years ago – could provide natural shelters and are therefore a great place to establish the first colonies.
The Moon is a terrifying environment for astronauts, as temperatures can drop to below -274F (-170C) during the lunar night, and the surface is exploded by solar radiation and micro-meteorites.
Although the largest lava tubes on Earth reach only about 60 feet in width, on the Moon they can be hundreds of feet wide and can be sealed to allow breathing air.
The rocky roof also provides a finished shield against harmful radiation and the indoor temperature drops to just -4F to -22 (-20C to -30C), so the tubes could be on heat them to a comfortable level.
One pipe, found in the Marius Hills area is at least 1,000 yards wide and high, and could hold small towns. There is probably a large underground network, from when there was abundant volcanic activity on the Moon.
Spacebit CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk said the design of a rover with legs was crucial to determining whether lava tubes are useful for living space.