From the mines to the moon, Australian group pins hopes on ‘Roo-ver’

The future of mining is going to the moon – or so the team behind the Perth-designed lunar rover bid hope.

Engineers and scientists from the Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth (AROSE) consortium launched their prototype of the exploratory vehicle, dubbed the Roo-ver, at Parliament House on Thursday.

The 20kg vehicle has robust wheels, a moveable solar panel and battery, cameras, and a scoop and analysis tools to collect and analyse soil, ice and other samples form the moon’s surface.

Program director Michelle Keegan said there was a lot of crossover in the problem-solving needed to design a vehicle to travel across the moon’s surface and for the resources sector in remote WA.

“If you look at any modern mine today, you’re designing for zero emissions, a really low footprint, and zero people and a sustainable kind of operation. If we look at the moon, everything has to be run remotely. We’re looking at a small footprint, zero emissions, just by the nature of the power,” she told The West.

“For us, we see that every little element that makes up the rover is almost exactly the same as a remote truck or a remote loader.”

AROSE chief executive Leanne Cunnold said Australia’s world-leading mining expertise had been key to developing the rover project domestically.

AROSE has a resources sector advisory board to exchange knowledge across the two industries, which includes representatives from Rio Tinto, South 32, BHP, Woodside and Iluka.

The learning goes in both directions, with Ms Keegan saying while Rio Tinto and Woodside, for example, knew how to run large-scale remote operations, the rover project could also offer them innovations in automation and electrification.

“We can see something like that rover with different sensors on it operating the moon. We can also see something like that operating and helping us explore the Earth,” she said.

“And with the critical minerals shortage, we need to accelerate what we do.”

NASA has asked the Australian Space Agency to find the next lunar rover to be used on its missions to the moon, and AROSE is one of two consortiums bidding for the contract.

The other contender is jointly led by Queensland-based robotics company EPE and US-based Lunar Outpost.

Both groups received $4 million grants last year to develop rover prototypes.

AROSE expects to hear back on its bid within about two months after its submission.

If the Roover is chosen, its 14-day adventure and scientific exploration on the moon will be guided out of Perth.

But the little gold rover would only have a one-way trip – once it is on the moon, it will stay there forever.