Posted: Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 5:53 PM ET (2153 GMT)
Australia will contribute a small robotic rover to a future NASA lunar lander mission. NASA and the Australian Space Agency announced Tuesday that Australia will produce the rover for a NASA commercial lander mission launching no earlier than 2026. The rover will scoop up regolith and return it to the lander, where a NASA payload will test the ability to extract oxygen from it. The rover is part of a $110 million "Moon to Mars Initiative" by the Australian government announced in 2019 as part of an agreement with NASA to cooperate on the Artemis program.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  Australian Broadcasting Corp. article
•  AAP article
•  NASA press release