NASA officials said Tuesday that they are seriously considering sending the full-scale engineering model of the Perseverance rover, which is currently housed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, to the Moon to expedite their efforts to explore the south pole region.

The car-sized rover nicknamed “Promise,” which serves as a testbed for Perseverance and was not otherwise planned for a launch, would land equipped with a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) to power it across difficult terrain and through the lunar night. //

NASA has an MMRTG available, with a supply of Plutonium-238 that is just decaying away. It is likely the rover, with a mass of about 1 ton, would need to be delivered by Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander or SpaceX’s Starship due to its size. //

Over the years, Promise has served as a test bed for problems that Perseverance might encounter on Mars. Commands are often tested on this vehicle in the “Mars yard” at the California laboratory before similar commands are sent to the rover on the surface of Mars. It has also helped ensure Perseverance can safely traverse various areas on Mars.

Perseverance launched to Mars in July 2020, and its predecessor, the similarly sized Curiosity rover, launched to the red planet in November 2011. //

Curiosus Novitius Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
2y
105
semyorka said:
To be clear, there is no pre-existing "Promise" rover. "PROMISE" stands for "Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration"
At least it wasn't Prototype Repurposed from Old Mars Inventory for Secondhand Expeditions. //

brokescientist Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
7y
135
I was just at JPL last week and they have also recently dusted off ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer). After over a decade in storage they were surprised everything seemed to be operational. Having the test bed is likely important, but actually using hardware and working to deploy long shelved ideas is really cool, and likely much more exciting for the engineers.