SYDNEY — The Australian Space Agency (ASA) on Tuesday chose the consortium ELO2 to build the country’s first lunar rover, with plans to launch the semiautonomous vehicle on a NASA Artemis mission later this decade.
Backed by 42 million Australian dollars ($26 million) in government funds, ELO2 will move to the next phase of developing its prototype into the Roo-ver, named after the country’s famed marsupial. The rover will collect lunar soil, known as regolith, from which scientists will try to extract oxygen.
